Dts8 Coffee Company (BKCT) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Dts8 Coffee Company (United States)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Dts8 Coffee Company is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dts8 Coffee Company

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Dts8 Coffee Company can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dts8 Coffee Company, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Dts8 Coffee Company can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Dts8 Coffee Company
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dts8 Coffee Company
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Food Processing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Dts8 Coffee Company

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Strengths of Dts8 Coffee Company | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Dts8 Coffee Company are -

Learning organization

- Dts8 Coffee Company 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 Dts8 Coffee Company is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Dts8 Coffee Company emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Innovation driven organization

– Dts8 Coffee Company is one of the most innovative firm in Food Processing sector.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Food Processing industry

– Dts8 Coffee Company has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Dts8 Coffee Company to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Food Processing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Dts8 Coffee Company to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Digital Transformation in Food Processing industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Dts8 Coffee Company digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Dts8 Coffee Company in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Dts8 Coffee Company has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Dts8 Coffee Company to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Diverse revenue streams

– Dts8 Coffee Company is present in almost all the verticals within the Food Processing industry. This has provided Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

Organizational Resilience of Dts8 Coffee Company

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Dts8 Coffee Company does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Strong track record of project management in the Food Processing industry

– Dts8 Coffee Company is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Dts8 Coffee Company in Food Processing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Ability to lead change in Food Processing

– Dts8 Coffee Company is one of the leading players in the Food Processing industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Food Processing industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Dts8 Coffee Company in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Training and development

– Dts8 Coffee Company 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)

– Dts8 Coffee Company has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

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Weaknesses of Dts8 Coffee Company | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Dts8 Coffee Company are -

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Dts8 Coffee Company 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 Food Processing industry using digital technology.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Dts8 Coffee Company 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. Dts8 Coffee Company should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Food Processing industry, Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Dts8 Coffee Company is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Food Processing industry, but Dts8 Coffee Company needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Dts8 Coffee Company to focus more on services in the Food Processing industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Dts8 Coffee Company has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Food Processing industry over the last five years. Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Dts8 Coffee Company, in the dynamic environment of Food Processing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Dts8 Coffee Company has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High dependence on Dts8 Coffee Company ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Dts8 Coffee Company still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Food Processing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Dts8 Coffee Company has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of United States, Dts8 Coffee Company needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Food Processing industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

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Dts8 Coffee Company Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Dts8 Coffee Company are -

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

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. Dts8 Coffee Company can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Food Processing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Dts8 Coffee Company 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. Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

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. Dts8 Coffee Company can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dts8 Coffee Company is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Dts8 Coffee Company can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Food Processing 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Dts8 Coffee Company 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 Dts8 Coffee Company to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Dts8 Coffee Company 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

– Dts8 Coffee Company can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Food Processing 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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Dts8 Coffee Company 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 Dts8 Coffee Company to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Dts8 Coffee Company has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Food Processing industry. This can help Dts8 Coffee Company to build a more holistic ecosystem for Dts8 Coffee Company products in the Food Processing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

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Threats Dts8 Coffee Company External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Dts8 Coffee Company are -

Increasing wage structure of Dts8 Coffee Company

– 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 Dts8 Coffee Company.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

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 Dts8 Coffee Company in the Food Processing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Dts8 Coffee Company in Food Processing industry. The Food Processing 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.

Environmental challenges

– Dts8 Coffee Company 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. Dts8 Coffee Company can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Food Processing industry.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

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. Dts8 Coffee Company 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, Dts8 Coffee Company 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 Dts8 Coffee Company prominent markets.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Dts8 Coffee Company 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Food Processing industry are lowering. It can presents Dts8 Coffee Company with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Food Processing sector.

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. Dts8 Coffee Company can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dts8 Coffee Company Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Dts8 Coffee Company 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 Dts8 Coffee Company 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 Dts8 Coffee Company 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 Dts8 Coffee Company 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 Dts8 Coffee Company needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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