SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for CCL Industries Inc (Canada)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , CCL Industries Inc is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of CCL Industries Inc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that CCL Industries Inc can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the CCL Industries Inc, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which CCL Industries Inc 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 CCL Industries Inc can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of CCL Industries Inc
2. Improving business portfolio management of CCL Industries Inc
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Canada
4. Making a Containers & Packaging sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of CCL Industries Inc
Strengths of CCL Industries Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of CCL Industries Inc are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– CCL Industries Inc has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. CCL Industries Inc 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.
Training and development
– CCL Industries Inc 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of CCL Industries Inc in Containers & Packaging industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- CCL Industries Inc 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 CCL Industries Inc is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at CCL Industries Inc emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– CCL Industries Inc has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled CCL Industries Inc to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of CCL Industries Inc
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing CCL Industries Inc does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– CCL Industries Inc is one of the most innovative firm in Containers & Packaging sector.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– CCL Industries Inc has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – CCL Industries Inc staying ahead in the Containers & Packaging industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– CCL Industries Inc is present in almost all the verticals within the Containers & Packaging industry. This has provided CCL Industries Inc 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.
Ability to lead change in Containers & Packaging
– CCL Industries Inc is one of the leading players in the Containers & Packaging industry in Canada. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Containers & Packaging industry in Canada but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled CCL Industries Inc in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of CCL Industries Inc in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. CCL Industries Inc has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps CCL Industries Inc to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management in the Containers & Packaging industry
– CCL Industries Inc is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of CCL Industries Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CCL Industries Inc are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of CCL Industries Inc is just above the Containers & Packaging 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at CCL Industries Inc, in the dynamic environment of Containers & Packaging industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. CCL Industries Inc has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Containers & Packaging industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Canada, CCL Industries Inc 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 Containers & Packaging industry.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, CCL Industries Inc has high operating costs in the Containers & Packaging industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract CCL Industries Inc lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, CCL Industries Inc is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help CCL Industries Inc to provide better information regarding Containers & Packaging products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, CCL Industries Inc 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 Containers & Packaging industry using digital technology.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of CCL Industries Inc is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Containers & Packaging industry, but CCL Industries Inc needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help CCL Industries Inc to focus more on services in the Containers & Packaging industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on CCL Industries Inc ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of CCL Industries Inc still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Containers & Packaging industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though CCL Industries Inc has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though CCL Industries Inc has some of the most successful models in the Containers & Packaging industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. CCL Industries Inc should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Containers & Packaging industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at CCL Industries Inc 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that CCL Industries Inc needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Containers & Packaging industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at CCL Industries Inc can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as CCL Industries Inc is planning to shift buying processes online.
CCL Industries Inc Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of CCL Industries Inc are -
Buying journey improvements
– CCL Industries Inc can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Containers & Packaging 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, CCL Industries Inc 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, CCL Industries Inc is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. CCL Industries Inc can utilize new technology in the field of Containers & Packaging industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Containers & Packaging industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. CCL Industries Inc can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– CCL Industries Inc 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– CCL Industries Inc 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.
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. CCL Industries Inc 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 Containers & Packaging industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. CCL Industries Inc 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. CCL Industries Inc 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for CCL Industries Inc 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 CCL Industries Inc to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, CCL Industries Inc can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that CCL Industries Inc operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Containers & Packaging sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, CCL Industries Inc 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 CCL Industries Inc to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of CCL Industries Inc has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Containers & Packaging industry. This can help CCL Industries Inc to build a more holistic ecosystem for CCL Industries Inc products in the Containers & Packaging industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– CCL Industries Inc has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Containers & Packaging sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled CCL Industries Inc to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help CCL Industries Inc to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats CCL Industries Inc External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of CCL Industries Inc are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– CCL Industries Inc has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Containers & Packaging industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, CCL Industries Inc needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Containers & Packaging 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– CCL Industries Inc 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Containers & Packaging industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. CCL Industries Inc can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 CCL Industries Inc 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 CCL Industries Inc in Containers & Packaging industry. The Containers & Packaging 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.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. CCL Industries Inc needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Containers & Packaging industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, CCL Industries Inc 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 CCL Industries Inc prominent markets.
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. CCL Industries Inc 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.
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 CCL Industries Inc.
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 CCL Industries Inc in the Containers & Packaging sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that CCL Industries Inc is facing in Containers & Packaging sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– CCL Industries Inc 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. CCL Industries Inc can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Containers & Packaging industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CCL Industries Inc Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at CCL Industries Inc 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 CCL Industries Inc 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 CCL Industries Inc 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 CCL Industries Inc 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 CCL Industries Inc needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.