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Grindrod Shipping (GSHJ) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Grindrod Shipping (South Africa)


Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Grindrod Shipping is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Grindrod Shipping


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




Strengths of Grindrod Shipping | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Grindrod Shipping are -

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

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

High brand equity

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

Ability to lead change in Water Transportation

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

Highly skilled collaborators

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

Organizational Resilience of Grindrod Shipping

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

Analytics focus

– Grindrod Shipping 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 Water Transportation 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.

Strong track record of project management in the Water Transportation industry

– Grindrod Shipping is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Learning organization

- Grindrod Shipping 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 Grindrod Shipping is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Grindrod Shipping emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Water Transportation industry

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

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Grindrod Shipping in Water Transportation industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Grindrod Shipping comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Water Transportation 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Grindrod Shipping is one of the most innovative firm in Water Transportation sector.






Weaknesses of Grindrod Shipping | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Grindrod Shipping are -

Slow to harness new channels of communication

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

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Grindrod Shipping needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Water Transportation industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Grindrod Shipping can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Grindrod Shipping is planning to shift buying processes online.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

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

Employees’ less understanding of Grindrod Shipping strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Grindrod Shipping 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Grindrod Shipping products

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

High dependence on Grindrod Shipping ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Grindrod Shipping still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Water Transportation industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Grindrod Shipping has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Grindrod Shipping has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Water Transportation industry over the last five years. Grindrod Shipping 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Grindrod Shipping 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 Water Transportation industry using digital technology.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Grindrod Shipping, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Water Transportation 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.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Water Transportation industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in South Africa, Grindrod Shipping 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 Water Transportation industry.

Products dominated business model

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




Grindrod Shipping Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities of Grindrod Shipping are -

Leveraging digital technologies

– Grindrod Shipping 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Grindrod Shipping to increase its market reach. Grindrod Shipping 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Grindrod Shipping in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Water Transportation industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

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. Grindrod Shipping can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Water Transportation industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Grindrod Shipping 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. Grindrod Shipping 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Grindrod Shipping can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Water Transportation 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Grindrod Shipping is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Grindrod Shipping can utilize new technology in the field of Water Transportation industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Manufacturing automation

– Grindrod Shipping can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Water Transportation 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Grindrod Shipping 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.

Increase in government spending

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

Developing new processes and practices

– Grindrod Shipping can develop new processes and procedures in Water Transportation 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Grindrod Shipping 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 Water Transportation industry.

Loyalty marketing

– Grindrod Shipping 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.




Threats Grindrod Shipping External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats of Grindrod Shipping are -

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Grindrod Shipping is facing in Water Transportation sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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 Grindrod Shipping business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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. Grindrod Shipping 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.

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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Grindrod Shipping may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Water Transportation sector.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Grindrod Shipping has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Water Transportation industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Grindrod Shipping needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Water Transportation sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.

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 Grindrod Shipping in the Water Transportation sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Regulatory challenges

– Grindrod Shipping 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 Water Transportation industry regulations.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Water Transportation industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Grindrod Shipping 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. Grindrod Shipping needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Water Transportation industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Grindrod Shipping 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.

Environmental challenges

– Grindrod Shipping 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. Grindrod Shipping can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Water Transportation industry.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Grindrod Shipping Template, Example


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



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