SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Tamul Multimedia (South Korea)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Tamul Multimedia is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Tamul Multimedia can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tamul Multimedia, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tamul Multimedia 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 Tamul Multimedia can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Tamul Multimedia
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tamul Multimedia
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in South Korea
4. Making a Semiconductors sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Tamul Multimedia
Strengths of Tamul Multimedia | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tamul Multimedia are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Tamul Multimedia has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Tamul Multimedia staying ahead in the Semiconductors industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Tamul Multimedia
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Tamul Multimedia does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Semiconductors
– Tamul Multimedia is one of the leading players in the Semiconductors industry in South Korea. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Semiconductors industry in South Korea but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Tamul Multimedia in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Tamul Multimedia has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Tamul Multimedia to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Tamul Multimedia has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Semiconductors industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Tamul Multimedia have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Semiconductors industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Tamul Multimedia digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Tamul Multimedia 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Tamul Multimedia 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.
Learning organization
- Tamul Multimedia 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 Tamul Multimedia is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Tamul Multimedia emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Tamul Multimedia in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. Tamul Multimedia has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Tamul Multimedia to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Tamul Multimedia is present in almost all the verticals within the Semiconductors industry. This has provided Tamul Multimedia 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.
Analytics focus
– Tamul Multimedia 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 Semiconductors 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
– Tamul Multimedia has one of the best training and development program in Technology 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.
Weaknesses of Tamul Multimedia | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Tamul Multimedia are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Tamul Multimedia has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Semiconductors industry over the last five years. Tamul Multimedia 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Tamul Multimedia is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Semiconductors industry, but Tamul Multimedia needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Tamul Multimedia to focus more on services in the Semiconductors industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Tamul Multimedia supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Tamul Multimedia is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Tamul Multimedia vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Tamul Multimedia is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Tamul Multimedia to provide better information regarding Semiconductors products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Semiconductors industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in South Korea, Tamul Multimedia 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 Semiconductors industry.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Tamul Multimedia 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 Semiconductors industry using digital technology.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Tamul Multimedia needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Semiconductors industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Tamul Multimedia can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Tamul Multimedia is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Tamul Multimedia, in the dynamic environment of Semiconductors industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Tamul Multimedia has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Tamul Multimedia has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Semiconductors industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Tamul Multimedia has some of the most successful models in the Semiconductors industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Tamul Multimedia should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Semiconductors industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Tamul Multimedia 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.
Tamul Multimedia Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Tamul Multimedia are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Tamul Multimedia 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Tamul Multimedia can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Semiconductors industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Manufacturing automation
– Tamul Multimedia can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Semiconductors 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Tamul Multimedia can develop new processes and procedures in Semiconductors 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Semiconductors industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Tamul Multimedia can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Tamul Multimedia to increase its market reach. Tamul Multimedia 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Tamul Multimedia 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 Tamul Multimedia to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Tamul Multimedia 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 Semiconductors industry.
Loyalty marketing
– Tamul Multimedia 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.
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 Tamul Multimedia 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Semiconductors industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Tamul Multimedia in the Semiconductors industry. Now Tamul Multimedia can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Tamul Multimedia can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Tamul Multimedia operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Semiconductors sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Tamul Multimedia 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 Tamul Multimedia to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Tamul Multimedia External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Tamul Multimedia are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Tamul Multimedia in Semiconductors industry. The Semiconductors industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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. Tamul Multimedia 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Tamul Multimedia 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 Semiconductors industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Tamul Multimedia 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.
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 Tamul Multimedia business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Tamul Multimedia has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Semiconductors industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Tamul Multimedia needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Semiconductors 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Tamul Multimedia 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 Tamul Multimedia prominent markets.
Regulatory challenges
– Tamul Multimedia 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 Semiconductors industry regulations.
Environmental challenges
– Tamul Multimedia 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. Tamul Multimedia can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Semiconductors industry.
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 Tamul Multimedia in the Semiconductors sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Tamul Multimedia.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Tamul Multimedia 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 Semiconductors industry and other sectors.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Tamul Multimedia is facing in Semiconductors sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Tamul Multimedia Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Tamul Multimedia 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 Tamul Multimedia 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 Tamul Multimedia 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 Tamul Multimedia 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 Tamul Multimedia needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.