Anglo American Platinum (AMSJ) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Anglo American Platinum (South Africa)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Anglo American Platinum is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, etc

---

---

---

---

Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Anglo American Platinum

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Anglo American Platinum can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Anglo American Platinum, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Anglo American Platinum 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 Anglo American Platinum can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Anglo American Platinum
2. Improving business portfolio management of Anglo American Platinum
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in South Africa
4. Making a Metal Mining sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Anglo American Platinum

---

Strengths of Anglo American Platinum | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Anglo American Platinum are -

Learning organization

- Anglo American Platinum is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Anglo American Platinum is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Anglo American Platinum emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Anglo American Platinum comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Metal Mining 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.

Organizational Resilience of Anglo American Platinum

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Anglo American Platinum does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Analytics focus

– Anglo American Platinum 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 Metal Mining industry. The technology infrastructure of South Africa 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

– Anglo American Platinum has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Anglo American Platinum to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Ability to lead change in Metal Mining

– Anglo American Platinum is one of the leading players in the Metal Mining industry in South Africa. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Metal Mining industry in South Africa but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Anglo American Platinum in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Innovation driven organization

– Anglo American Platinum is one of the most innovative firm in Metal Mining sector.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Metal Mining industry

– Anglo American Platinum has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Anglo American Platinum to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Metal Mining industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Anglo American Platinum to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Anglo American Platinum has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Anglo American Platinum staying ahead in the Metal Mining industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Anglo American Platinum is one of the leading players in the Metal Mining industry in South Africa. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in South Africa. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Anglo American Platinum 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Anglo American Platinum has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Metal Mining industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Anglo American Platinum have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

---

---

Weaknesses of Anglo American Platinum | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Anglo American Platinum are -

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Metal Mining industry, Anglo American Platinum 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Anglo American Platinum has some of the most successful models in the Metal Mining industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Anglo American Platinum should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Anglo American Platinum has high operating costs in the Metal Mining industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Anglo American Platinum lucrative customers.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Anglo American Platinum is one of the leading players in the Metal Mining industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Metal Mining industry in last five years.

Employees’ less understanding of Anglo American Platinum strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Anglo American Platinum 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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Anglo American Platinum is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Anglo American Platinum to provide better information regarding Metal Mining products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of South Africa, Anglo American Platinum needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Need for greater diversity

– Anglo American Platinum 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Anglo American Platinum is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Metal Mining industry, but Anglo American Platinum needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Anglo American Platinum to focus more on services in the Metal Mining industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Anglo American Platinum 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 Metal Mining industry using digital technology.

Lack of clear differentiation of Anglo American Platinum products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Anglo American Platinum needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

---

Anglo American Platinum Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Anglo American Platinum are -

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Metal Mining industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Anglo American Platinum 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. Anglo American Platinum 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Anglo American Platinum 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Anglo American Platinum can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Metal Mining 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Anglo American Platinum can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Metal Mining 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Anglo American Platinum in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Metal Mining industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Anglo American Platinum 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 Anglo American Platinum to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Developing new processes and practices

– Anglo American Platinum can develop new processes and procedures in Metal Mining 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Anglo American Platinum has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Metal Mining industry. This can help Anglo American Platinum to build a more holistic ecosystem for Anglo American Platinum products in the Metal Mining industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Anglo American Platinum 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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Anglo American Platinum 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 Anglo American Platinum to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Anglo American Platinum can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Anglo American Platinum operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Metal Mining sector.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Anglo American Platinum has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Metal Mining sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Anglo American Platinum to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Anglo American Platinum to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Anglo American Platinum 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.

---

Threats Anglo American Platinum External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Anglo American Platinum are -

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 Anglo American Platinum business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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 Anglo American Platinum.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Metal Mining industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Anglo American Platinum can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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. Anglo American Platinum needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Metal Mining industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Increasing wage structure of Anglo American Platinum

– 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 Anglo American Platinum.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Anglo American Platinum is facing in Metal Mining sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Environmental challenges

– Anglo American Platinum 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. Anglo American Platinum can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Metal Mining industry.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Anglo American Platinum 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 Anglo American Platinum prominent markets.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Anglo American Platinum 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.

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.

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. Anglo American Platinum 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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Anglo American Platinum in Metal Mining industry. The Metal Mining 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.

Regulatory challenges

– Anglo American Platinum 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 Metal Mining industry regulations.

---

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Anglo American Platinum Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Anglo American Platinum 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 Anglo American Platinum 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 Anglo American Platinum 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 Anglo American Platinum 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 Anglo American Platinum needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

--- ---