SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Advanced Disposal (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Advanced Disposal is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Advanced Disposal
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Advanced Disposal can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Advanced Disposal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Advanced Disposal 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 Advanced Disposal can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Advanced Disposal
2. Improving business portfolio management of Advanced Disposal
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Trucking sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Advanced Disposal
Strengths of Advanced Disposal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Advanced Disposal are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Advanced Disposal comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Trucking 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.
High brand equity
– Advanced Disposal has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Advanced Disposal to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Advanced Disposal has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Trucking industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Advanced Disposal have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Advanced Disposal is present in almost all the verticals within the Trucking industry. This has provided Advanced Disposal 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Trucking industry
– Advanced Disposal is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Advanced Disposal has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Advanced Disposal 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.
Ability to lead change in Trucking
– Advanced Disposal is one of the leading players in the Trucking industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Trucking industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Advanced Disposal in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Advanced Disposal
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Advanced Disposal does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Advanced Disposal 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
- Advanced Disposal 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 Advanced Disposal is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Advanced Disposal emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Advanced Disposal 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 Trucking industry
– Advanced Disposal has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Advanced Disposal to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Trucking industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Advanced Disposal to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses of Advanced Disposal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Advanced Disposal 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 Advanced Disposal supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Advanced Disposal is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Advanced Disposal vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Trucking industry, Advanced Disposal 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.
Skills based hiring in Trucking industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Advanced Disposal 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Advanced Disposal is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Trucking industry, but Advanced Disposal needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Advanced Disposal to focus more on services in the Trucking industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Advanced Disposal is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Advanced Disposal to provide better information regarding Trucking products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on Advanced Disposal ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Advanced Disposal still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Trucking industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Advanced Disposal has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Advanced Disposal, in the dynamic environment of Trucking industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Advanced Disposal has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Advanced Disposal has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Trucking industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Advanced Disposal 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 Trucking industry.
Lack of clear differentiation of Advanced Disposal products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Advanced Disposal needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Advanced Disposal needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Trucking industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Advanced Disposal can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Advanced Disposal is planning to shift buying processes online.
Advanced Disposal Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Advanced Disposal are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Advanced Disposal 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Advanced Disposal has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Trucking industry. This can help Advanced Disposal to build a more holistic ecosystem for Advanced Disposal products in the Trucking industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Advanced Disposal can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Trucking 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Trucking industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Advanced Disposal 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. Advanced Disposal 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Advanced Disposal 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Advanced Disposal 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 Advanced Disposal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Advanced Disposal has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Trucking sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Advanced Disposal to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Advanced Disposal to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Advanced Disposal is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Advanced Disposal can utilize new technology in the field of Trucking industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Trucking industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Advanced Disposal can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Trucking industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Advanced Disposal in the Trucking industry. Now Advanced Disposal can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Advanced Disposal 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Advanced Disposal 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Advanced Disposal can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Advanced Disposal operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Trucking sector.
Threats Advanced Disposal External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Advanced Disposal are -
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Advanced Disposal is facing in Trucking sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Advanced Disposal 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Trucking industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Advanced Disposal can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Advanced Disposal needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Trucking industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Advanced Disposal 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 Trucking industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Advanced Disposal may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Trucking sector.
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 Advanced Disposal 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 Advanced Disposal.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Advanced Disposal in Trucking industry. The Trucking 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Advanced Disposal 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 Advanced Disposal prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of Advanced Disposal
– 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 Advanced Disposal.
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 Advanced Disposal in the Trucking sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Advanced Disposal Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Advanced Disposal 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 Advanced Disposal 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 Advanced Disposal 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 Advanced Disposal 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 Advanced Disposal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
