SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Pulmuone Holdi (South Korea)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Pulmuone Holdi is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Pulmuone Holdi can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pulmuone Holdi, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pulmuone Holdi 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 Pulmuone Holdi can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Pulmuone Holdi
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pulmuone Holdi
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in South Korea
4. Making a Food Processing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Pulmuone Holdi
Strengths of Pulmuone Holdi | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pulmuone Holdi are -
High brand equity
– Pulmuone Holdi has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pulmuone Holdi to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Pulmuone Holdi 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 Pulmuone Holdi is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Pulmuone Holdi emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Food Processing industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Pulmuone Holdi digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Pulmuone Holdi 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.
Analytics focus
– Pulmuone Holdi 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 Food Processing industry. The technology infrastructure of South Korea 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.
Training and development
– Pulmuone Holdi has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Pulmuone Holdi has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Pulmuone Holdi staying ahead in the Food Processing industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Pulmuone Holdi 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Pulmuone Holdi in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Pulmuone Holdi has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Pulmuone Holdi to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Pulmuone Holdi 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Food Processing industry
– Pulmuone Holdi has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Pulmuone Holdi to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Food Processing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Pulmuone Holdi to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Pulmuone Holdi comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Food Processing 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Pulmuone Holdi is present in almost all the verticals within the Food Processing industry. This has provided Pulmuone Holdi 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.
Weaknesses of Pulmuone Holdi | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Pulmuone Holdi are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Pulmuone Holdi is just above the Food Processing 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Pulmuone Holdi is one of the leading players in the Food Processing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Food Processing industry in last five years.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Pulmuone Holdi, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Food Processing 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Pulmuone Holdi, in the dynamic environment of Food Processing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Pulmuone Holdi has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Pulmuone Holdi has some of the most successful models in the Food Processing industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Pulmuone Holdi should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Food Processing industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in South Korea, Pulmuone Holdi 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 Food Processing industry.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of South Korea, Pulmuone Holdi needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Pulmuone Holdi is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Pulmuone Holdi to provide better information regarding Food Processing products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Pulmuone Holdi has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Food Processing industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Need for greater diversity
– Pulmuone Holdi 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 Pulmuone Holdi is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Food Processing industry, but Pulmuone Holdi needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Pulmuone Holdi to focus more on services in the Food Processing industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Pulmuone Holdi Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Pulmuone Holdi are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Pulmuone Holdi can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pulmuone Holdi operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Food Processing sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Pulmuone Holdi 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 Food Processing industry.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Food Processing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Pulmuone Holdi can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Pulmuone Holdi 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Pulmuone Holdi 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 Pulmuone Holdi to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Pulmuone Holdi is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Pulmuone Holdi can utilize new technology in the field of Food Processing industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Pulmuone Holdi 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.
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. Pulmuone Holdi can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Pulmuone Holdi 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 Pulmuone Holdi to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Pulmuone Holdi can develop new processes and procedures in Food Processing 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 Pulmuone Holdi has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Food Processing industry. This can help Pulmuone Holdi to build a more holistic ecosystem for Pulmuone Holdi products in the Food Processing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Pulmuone Holdi 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Pulmuone Holdi can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Pulmuone Holdi External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Pulmuone Holdi are -
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 Pulmuone Holdi in the Food Processing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Pulmuone Holdi 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 Food Processing industry regulations.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Food Processing industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Pulmuone Holdi can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Pulmuone Holdi 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 Food Processing industry.
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 Pulmuone Holdi business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Pulmuone Holdi may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Food Processing sector.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Food Processing industry are lowering. It can presents Pulmuone Holdi with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Food Processing sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pulmuone Holdi 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 Food Processing industry and other sectors.
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. Pulmuone Holdi 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pulmuone Holdi 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 Pulmuone Holdi prominent markets.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pulmuone Holdi has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Food Processing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pulmuone Holdi needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Food Processing 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.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing wage structure of Pulmuone Holdi
– 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 Pulmuone Holdi.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Pulmuone Holdi Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Pulmuone Holdi 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 Pulmuone Holdi 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 Pulmuone Holdi 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 Pulmuone Holdi 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 Pulmuone Holdi needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.