Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , CHS Inc CL Pref is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that CHS Inc CL Pref can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the CHS Inc CL Pref, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which CHS Inc CL 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 CHS Inc CL Pref can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of CHS Inc CL Pref
2. Improving business portfolio management of CHS Inc CL Pref
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Crops sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of CHS Inc CL Pref
Strengths of CHS Inc CL Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of CHS Inc CL Pref are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Crops industry
– CHS Inc CL Pref has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled CHS Inc CL Pref to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Crops industry. The sustainable margins have also helped CHS Inc CL Pref to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– CHS Inc CL Pref has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled CHS Inc CL Pref to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the CHS Inc CL Pref are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– CHS Inc CL Pref is one of the most innovative firm in Crops sector.
Successful track record of launching new products
– CHS Inc CL Pref has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. CHS Inc CL 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.
Organizational Resilience of CHS Inc CL Pref
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing CHS Inc CL Pref does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Crops industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For CHS Inc CL Pref digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. CHS Inc CL 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that CHS Inc CL 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– CHS Inc CL Pref is one of the leading players in the Crops industry in United States. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United States. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– CHS Inc CL Pref is present in almost all the verticals within the Crops industry. This has provided CHS Inc CL Pref 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.
Analytics focus
– CHS Inc CL Pref is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the Crops industry. The technology infrastructure of United States is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Learning organization
- CHS Inc CL 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 CHS Inc CL Pref is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at CHS Inc CL Pref emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of CHS Inc CL Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CHS Inc CL Pref are -
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of CHS Inc CL Pref, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Crops industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Lack of clear differentiation of CHS Inc CL Pref products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, CHS Inc CL Pref needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As CHS Inc CL Pref is one of the leading players in the Crops industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Crops industry in last five years.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of CHS Inc CL Pref is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Crops industry, but CHS Inc CL Pref needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help CHS Inc CL Pref to focus more on services in the Crops industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Crops industry, CHS Inc CL Pref 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though CHS Inc CL Pref has some of the most successful models in the Crops industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. CHS Inc CL Pref should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on CHS Inc CL Pref ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of CHS Inc CL Pref still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Crops industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though CHS Inc CL Pref has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ less understanding of CHS Inc CL Pref strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of CHS Inc CL 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of CHS Inc CL Pref is just above the Crops 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that CHS Inc CL Pref needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Crops industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at CHS Inc CL Pref can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as CHS Inc CL Pref is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, CHS Inc CL Pref is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help CHS Inc CL Pref to provide better information regarding Crops products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
CHS Inc CL Pref Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of CHS Inc CL Pref are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– CHS Inc CL Pref 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Crops industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. CHS Inc CL 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. CHS Inc CL 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, CHS Inc CL Pref 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 CHS Inc CL Pref to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for CHS Inc CL 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 CHS Inc CL Pref to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of CHS Inc CL Pref has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Crops industry. This can help CHS Inc CL Pref to build a more holistic ecosystem for CHS Inc CL Pref products in the Crops industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– CHS Inc CL Pref 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– CHS Inc CL Pref has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Crops sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled CHS Inc CL Pref to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help CHS Inc CL Pref to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, CHS Inc CL Pref 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Crops industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. CHS Inc CL Pref can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Crops industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for CHS Inc CL Pref in the Crops industry. Now CHS Inc CL Pref can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for CHS Inc CL 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.
Manufacturing automation
– CHS Inc CL Pref can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Crops 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.
Buying journey improvements
– CHS Inc CL Pref can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Crops 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.
Threats CHS Inc CL Pref External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of CHS Inc CL Pref are -
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.
Regulatory challenges
– CHS Inc CL Pref needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Crops industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– CHS Inc CL Pref has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Crops industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, CHS Inc CL Pref needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Crops 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, CHS Inc CL 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 CHS Inc CL Pref prominent markets.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Crops industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. CHS Inc CL Pref can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 CHS Inc CL Pref in the Crops sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on CHS Inc CL 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 Crops industry and other sectors.
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. CHS Inc CL Pref needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Crops industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for CHS Inc CL Pref in Crops industry. The Crops 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that CHS Inc CL Pref is facing in Crops 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 CHS Inc CL Pref business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 wage structure of CHS Inc CL 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 CHS Inc CL Pref.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CHS Inc CL Pref Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at CHS Inc CL 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 CHS Inc CL 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 CHS Inc CL 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 CHS Inc CL 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 CHS Inc CL Pref needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.