Cerro Grande Mining Corp (CEGMF) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Gold & Silver
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Cerro Grande Mining Corp (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Cerro Grande Mining Corp is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cerro Grande Mining Corp
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Cerro Grande Mining Corp can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cerro Grande Mining Corp, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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 Cerro Grande Mining Corp can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Cerro Grande Mining Corp
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cerro Grande Mining Corp
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Gold & Silver sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Cerro Grande Mining Corp
Strengths of Cerro Grande Mining Corp | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cerro Grande Mining Corp are -
Training and development
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp has one of the best training and development program in Basic Materials 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.
Learning organization
- Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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 Cerro Grande Mining Corp is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Cerro Grande Mining Corp emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Cerro Grande Mining Corp
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Cerro Grande Mining Corp does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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.
Digital Transformation in Gold & Silver industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cerro Grande Mining Corp digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cerro Grande Mining Corp has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Gold & Silver industry
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cerro Grande Mining Corp to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Gold & Silver industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cerro Grande Mining Corp to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Gold & Silver industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Cerro Grande Mining Corp have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp is one of the most innovative firm in Gold & Silver sector.
Diverse revenue streams
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp is present in almost all the verticals within the Gold & Silver industry. This has provided Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Cerro Grande Mining Corp staying ahead in the Gold & Silver industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Cerro Grande Mining Corp comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Gold & Silver 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.
Weaknesses of Cerro Grande Mining Corp | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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 Cerro Grande Mining Corp supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Cerro Grande Mining Corp is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cerro Grande Mining Corp vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Cerro Grande Mining Corp is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Gold & Silver industry, but Cerro Grande Mining Corp needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Cerro Grande Mining Corp to focus more on services in the Gold & Silver industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Cerro Grande Mining Corp needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Cerro Grande Mining Corp, in the dynamic environment of Gold & Silver industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Cerro Grande Mining Corp has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Cerro Grande Mining Corp has high operating costs in the Gold & Silver industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Cerro Grande Mining Corp lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Cerro Grande Mining Corp has some of the most successful models in the Gold & Silver industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Cerro Grande Mining Corp should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Cerro Grande Mining Corp is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Cerro Grande Mining Corp to provide better information regarding Gold & Silver products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Gold & Silver industry, Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Cerro Grande Mining Corp needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Gold & Silver industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Cerro Grande Mining Corp can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cerro Grande Mining Corp is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Cerro Grande Mining Corp has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Gold & Silver industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High dependence on Cerro Grande Mining Corp ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Cerro Grande Mining Corp still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Gold & Silver industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Cerro Grande Mining Corp has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Cerro Grande Mining Corp Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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. Cerro Grande Mining Corp can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Gold & Silver sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Cerro Grande Mining Corp to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cerro Grande Mining Corp to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Gold & Silver 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cerro Grande Mining Corp can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cerro Grande Mining Corp operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Gold & Silver sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Gold & Silver 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cerro Grande Mining Corp to increase its market reach. Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Gold & Silver industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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. Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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.
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 Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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 Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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 Gold & Silver industry.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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.
Threats Cerro Grande Mining Corp External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Cerro Grande Mining Corp are -
Increasing wage structure of Cerro Grande Mining Corp
– 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 Cerro Grande Mining Corp.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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 Gold & Silver industry and other sectors.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Gold & Silver industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cerro Grande Mining Corp needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Gold & Silver 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Cerro Grande Mining Corp may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Gold & Silver 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 Cerro Grande Mining Corp business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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. Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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 Gold & Silver industry.
Environmental challenges
– Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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. Cerro Grande Mining Corp can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Gold & Silver industry.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Gold & Silver industry are lowering. It can presents Cerro Grande Mining Corp with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Gold & Silver sector.
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 Cerro Grande Mining Corp in the Gold & Silver sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cerro Grande Mining Corp Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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 Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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 Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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 Cerro Grande Mining Corp 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 Cerro Grande Mining Corp needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.