SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for UNIPAR PNB (Brazil)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , UNIPAR PNB is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that UNIPAR PNB can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the UNIPAR PNB, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which UNIPAR PNB 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 UNIPAR PNB can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of UNIPAR PNB
2. Improving business portfolio management of UNIPAR PNB
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Brazil
4. Making a Chemical Manufacturing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of UNIPAR PNB
Strengths of UNIPAR PNB | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of UNIPAR PNB are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– UNIPAR PNB has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled UNIPAR PNB to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped UNIPAR PNB to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- UNIPAR PNB 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 UNIPAR PNB is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at UNIPAR PNB emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of UNIPAR PNB
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing UNIPAR PNB does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Chemical Manufacturing
– UNIPAR PNB is one of the leading players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry in Brazil. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Chemical Manufacturing industry in Brazil but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled UNIPAR PNB in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– UNIPAR PNB is present in almost all the verticals within the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This has provided UNIPAR PNB a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that UNIPAR PNB has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– UNIPAR PNB has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Chemical Manufacturing industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of UNIPAR PNB have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– UNIPAR PNB is one of the leading players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry in Brazil. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Brazil. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of UNIPAR PNB in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. UNIPAR PNB has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps UNIPAR PNB to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of UNIPAR PNB in Chemical Manufacturing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– UNIPAR PNB has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled UNIPAR PNB to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management in the Chemical Manufacturing industry
– UNIPAR PNB 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 UNIPAR PNB | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of UNIPAR PNB are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at UNIPAR PNB, in the dynamic environment of Chemical Manufacturing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. UNIPAR PNB has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at UNIPAR PNB 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of UNIPAR PNB is just above the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, UNIPAR PNB 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, UNIPAR PNB has high operating costs in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract UNIPAR PNB lucrative customers.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of UNIPAR PNB supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, UNIPAR PNB is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left UNIPAR PNB vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As UNIPAR PNB is one of the leading players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Chemical Manufacturing industry in last five years.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, UNIPAR PNB has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Chemical Manufacturing industry over the last five years. UNIPAR PNB 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Chemical Manufacturing industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Brazil, UNIPAR PNB is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Chemical Manufacturing industry.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that UNIPAR PNB needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Chemical Manufacturing industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at UNIPAR PNB can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as UNIPAR PNB is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though UNIPAR PNB has some of the most successful models in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. UNIPAR PNB should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
UNIPAR PNB Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of UNIPAR PNB are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Chemical Manufacturing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. UNIPAR PNB can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– UNIPAR PNB can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at UNIPAR PNB 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, UNIPAR PNB 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.
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 UNIPAR PNB 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.
Manufacturing automation
– UNIPAR PNB can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Chemical Manufacturing sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of UNIPAR PNB has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Chemical Manufacturing industry. This can help UNIPAR PNB to build a more holistic ecosystem for UNIPAR PNB products in the Chemical Manufacturing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects UNIPAR PNB can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help UNIPAR PNB to increase its market reach. UNIPAR PNB will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Loyalty marketing
– UNIPAR PNB 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– UNIPAR PNB has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Chemical Manufacturing sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled UNIPAR PNB to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help UNIPAR PNB to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– UNIPAR PNB 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for UNIPAR PNB in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats UNIPAR PNB External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of UNIPAR PNB are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, UNIPAR PNB may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Regulatory challenges
– UNIPAR PNB needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Chemical Manufacturing industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, UNIPAR PNB 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 UNIPAR PNB prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of UNIPAR PNB
– 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 UNIPAR PNB.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– UNIPAR PNB 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that UNIPAR PNB is facing in Chemical Manufacturing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on UNIPAR PNB 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry and other sectors.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– UNIPAR PNB has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, UNIPAR PNB needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
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.
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 UNIPAR PNB 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 UNIPAR PNB.
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. UNIPAR PNB needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of UNIPAR PNB Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at UNIPAR PNB 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 UNIPAR PNB 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 UNIPAR PNB 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 UNIPAR PNB 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 UNIPAR PNB needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.