Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Crown Castle Pref is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Crown Castle Pref
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Crown Castle Pref can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Crown Castle Pref, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Crown Castle Pref 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 Crown Castle Pref can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Crown Castle Pref
2. Improving business portfolio management of Crown Castle Pref
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Rental & Leasing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Crown Castle Pref
Strengths of Crown Castle Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Crown Castle Pref are -
Strong track record of project management in the Rental & Leasing industry
– Crown Castle Pref is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Crown Castle Pref has one of the best training and development program in Services 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.
High brand equity
– Crown Castle Pref has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Crown Castle Pref to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Rental & Leasing industry
– Crown Castle Pref has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Crown Castle Pref to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Rental & Leasing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Crown Castle Pref to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Crown Castle Pref in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Crown Castle Pref has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Crown Castle Pref to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Rental & Leasing industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Crown Castle Pref digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Crown Castle Pref 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Crown Castle Pref in Rental & Leasing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Crown Castle Pref 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
- Crown Castle Pref 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 Crown Castle Pref is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Crown Castle Pref emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Crown Castle Pref
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Crown Castle Pref does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Crown Castle Pref comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Rental & Leasing 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Crown Castle Pref has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Crown Castle Pref 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.
Weaknesses of Crown Castle Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Crown Castle Pref are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Crown Castle Pref has high operating costs in the Rental & Leasing industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Crown Castle Pref lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Crown Castle Pref has some of the most successful models in the Rental & Leasing industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Crown Castle Pref should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ less understanding of Crown Castle Pref strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Crown Castle Pref 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Crown Castle Pref is one of the leading players in the Rental & Leasing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Rental & Leasing industry in last five years.
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 Crown Castle Pref supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Crown Castle Pref is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Crown Castle Pref vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Rental & Leasing industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Crown Castle Pref 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 Rental & Leasing industry.
High dependence on Crown Castle Pref ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Crown Castle Pref still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Rental & Leasing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Crown Castle Pref has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring in Rental & Leasing industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Crown Castle Pref 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Crown Castle Pref has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Rental & Leasing industry over the last five years. Crown Castle Pref 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Crown Castle Pref needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Crown Castle Pref is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Rental & Leasing industry, but Crown Castle Pref needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Crown Castle Pref to focus more on services in the Rental & Leasing industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Crown Castle Pref Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Crown Castle Pref are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Crown Castle Pref 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.
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 Crown Castle Pref 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Crown Castle Pref can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Crown Castle Pref operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Rental & Leasing sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Crown Castle Pref can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Rental & Leasing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Crown Castle Pref 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. Crown Castle Pref 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Crown Castle Pref is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Crown Castle Pref can utilize new technology in the field of Rental & Leasing industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Crown Castle Pref has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Rental & Leasing industry. This can help Crown Castle Pref to build a more holistic ecosystem for Crown Castle Pref products in the Rental & Leasing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Crown Castle Pref can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Rental & Leasing 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Crown Castle Pref 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 Rental & Leasing industry.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Crown Castle Pref 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 Crown Castle Pref to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Crown Castle Pref to increase its market reach. Crown Castle Pref 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Rental & Leasing industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Crown Castle Pref in the Rental & Leasing industry. Now Crown Castle Pref can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Crown Castle Pref can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Crown Castle Pref External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Crown Castle Pref are -
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 Crown Castle Pref.
Increasing wage structure of Crown Castle Pref
– 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 Crown Castle Pref.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Crown Castle Pref 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 Crown Castle Pref prominent markets.
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.
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. Crown Castle Pref 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Crown Castle Pref 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Crown Castle Pref 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 Rental & Leasing industry and other sectors.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Crown Castle Pref is facing in Rental & Leasing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Crown Castle Pref business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Crown Castle Pref in Rental & Leasing industry. The Rental & Leasing 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Crown Castle Pref 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 Rental & Leasing industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Crown Castle Pref has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Rental & Leasing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Crown Castle Pref needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Rental & Leasing 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Crown Castle Pref Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Crown Castle Pref 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 Crown Castle Pref 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 Crown Castle Pref 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 Crown Castle Pref 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 Crown Castle Pref needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.