SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for FII Panamby (Brazil)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , FII Panamby is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that FII Panamby can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the FII Panamby, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which FII Panamby 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 FII Panamby can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of FII Panamby
2. Improving business portfolio management of FII Panamby
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Brazil
4. Making a NA sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of FII Panamby
Strengths of FII Panamby | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of FII Panamby are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of FII Panamby comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the NA 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of FII Panamby in the NA sector have low bargaining power. FII Panamby has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps FII Panamby to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of FII Panamby
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing FII Panamby does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the FII Panamby 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.
Analytics focus
– FII Panamby 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 NA industry. The technology infrastructure of Brazil 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.
Ability to lead change in NA
– FII Panamby is one of the leading players in the NA industry in Brazil. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the NA industry in Brazil but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled FII Panamby in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– FII Panamby has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. FII Panamby 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of FII Panamby in NA industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in NA industry
– FII Panamby has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled FII Panamby to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the NA industry. The sustainable margins have also helped FII Panamby to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– FII Panamby is one of the most innovative firm in NA sector.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that FII Panamby 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
- FII Panamby 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 FII Panamby is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at FII Panamby emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of FII Panamby | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of FII Panamby are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, FII Panamby 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of FII Panamby products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, FII Panamby needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of FII Panamby, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact NA 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of FII Panamby is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the NA industry, but FII Panamby needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help FII Panamby to focus more on services in the NA 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 FII Panamby supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, FII Panamby is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left FII Panamby vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As FII Panamby is one of the leading players in the NA industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the NA industry in last five years.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, FII Panamby has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the NA industry over the last five years. FII Panamby 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though FII Panamby has some of the most successful models in the NA industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. FII Panamby should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that FII Panamby needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the NA industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at FII Panamby can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as FII Panamby is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ less understanding of FII Panamby strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of FII Panamby 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.
Skills based hiring in NA industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at FII Panamby 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.
FII Panamby Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of FII Panamby are -
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. FII Panamby can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– FII Panamby can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in NA 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, FII Panamby 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.
Loyalty marketing
– FII Panamby 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 FII Panamby 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 FII Panamby to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help FII Panamby to increase its market reach. FII Panamby 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of FII Panamby has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in NA industry. This can help FII Panamby to build a more holistic ecosystem for FII Panamby products in the NA industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for FII Panamby in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the NA industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 FII Panamby 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the NA industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. FII Panamby 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. FII Panamby 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, FII Panamby can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that FII Panamby operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in NA sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– FII Panamby can develop new processes and procedures in NA 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, FII Panamby is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. FII Panamby can utilize new technology in the field of NA industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Threats FII Panamby External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of FII Panamby are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– FII Panamby has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the NA industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, FII Panamby needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the NA 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to NA industry are lowering. It can presents FII Panamby with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the NA sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, FII Panamby 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 FII Panamby prominent markets.
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 FII Panamby.
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 FII Panamby business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– FII Panamby 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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– FII Panamby 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. FII Panamby can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the NA industry.
Regulatory challenges
– FII Panamby 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 NA industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on FII Panamby 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 NA industry and other sectors.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– FII Panamby 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 NA industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in NA industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. FII Panamby can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that FII Panamby is facing in NA sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of FII Panamby Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at FII Panamby 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 FII Panamby 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 FII Panamby 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 FII Panamby 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 FII Panamby needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.