African Media Entertainment (AMEJ) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Broadcasting & Cable TV
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for African Media Entertainment (South Africa)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , African Media Entertainment is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of African Media Entertainment
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that African Media Entertainment can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the African Media Entertainment, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which African Media Entertainment 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 African Media Entertainment can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of African Media Entertainment
2. Improving business portfolio management of African Media Entertainment
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in South Africa
4. Making a Broadcasting & Cable TV sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of African Media Entertainment
Strengths of African Media Entertainment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of African Media Entertainment are -
Digital Transformation in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For African Media Entertainment digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. African Media Entertainment 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– African Media Entertainment has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. African Media Entertainment 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.
Innovation driven organization
– African Media Entertainment is one of the most innovative firm in Broadcasting & Cable TV sector.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of African Media Entertainment in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– African Media Entertainment has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Broadcasting & Cable TV industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of African Media Entertainment have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of African Media Entertainment in the Services sector have low bargaining power. African Media Entertainment has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps African Media Entertainment to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– African Media Entertainment is present in almost all the verticals within the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry. This has provided African Media Entertainment 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry
– African Media Entertainment has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled African Media Entertainment to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry. The sustainable margins have also helped African Media Entertainment to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- African Media Entertainment 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 African Media Entertainment is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at African Media Entertainment emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– African Media Entertainment is one of the leading players in the Broadcasting & Cable TV 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry
– African Media Entertainment is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– African Media Entertainment has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – African Media Entertainment staying ahead in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses of African Media Entertainment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of African Media Entertainment are -
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 African Media Entertainment supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, African Media Entertainment is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left African Media Entertainment vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, African Media Entertainment has high operating costs in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract African Media Entertainment lucrative customers.
Employees’ less understanding of African Media Entertainment strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of African Media Entertainment 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
African Media Entertainment has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Skills based hiring in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at African Media Entertainment 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of African Media Entertainment products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, African Media Entertainment needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, African Media Entertainment 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 Broadcasting & Cable TV industry using digital technology.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that African Media Entertainment needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at African Media Entertainment can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as African Media Entertainment is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, African Media Entertainment has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry over the last five years. African Media Entertainment 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry, African Media Entertainment 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of African Media Entertainment is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry, but African Media Entertainment needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help African Media Entertainment to focus more on services in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
African Media Entertainment Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of African Media Entertainment are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for African Media Entertainment in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Buying journey improvements
– African Media Entertainment can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Broadcasting & Cable TV 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, African Media Entertainment can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that African Media Entertainment operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Broadcasting & Cable TV sector.
Loyalty marketing
– African Media Entertainment 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. African Media Entertainment 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. African Media Entertainment 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, African Media Entertainment 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 African Media Entertainment to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for African Media Entertainment 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for African Media Entertainment in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry. Now African Media Entertainment can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of African Media Entertainment has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry. This can help African Media Entertainment to build a more holistic ecosystem for African Media Entertainment products in the Broadcasting & Cable TV industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– African Media Entertainment can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Broadcasting & Cable TV 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, African Media Entertainment is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. African Media Entertainment can utilize new technology in the field of Broadcasting & Cable TV industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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. African Media Entertainment can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, African Media Entertainment 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.
Threats African Media Entertainment External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of African Media Entertainment 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. African Media Entertainment 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.
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 African Media Entertainment business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– African Media Entertainment 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.
Regulatory challenges
– African Media Entertainment 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 Broadcasting & Cable TV industry regulations.
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 African Media Entertainment.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Broadcasting & Cable TV industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. African Media Entertainment can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of African Media Entertainment
– 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 African Media Entertainment.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– African Media Entertainment 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 Broadcasting & Cable TV industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on African Media Entertainment 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 Broadcasting & Cable TV industry and other sectors.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that African Media Entertainment is facing in Broadcasting & Cable TV sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, African Media Entertainment may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Broadcasting & Cable TV sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of African Media Entertainment Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at African Media Entertainment 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 African Media Entertainment 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 African Media Entertainment 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 African Media Entertainment 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 African Media Entertainment needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.