Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , CHS Inc CN Pref is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that CHS Inc CN Pref can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the CHS Inc CN Pref, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which CHS Inc CN 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 CN Pref can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of CHS Inc CN Pref
2. Improving business portfolio management of CHS Inc CN 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 CN Pref
Strengths of CHS Inc CN Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of CHS Inc CN Pref are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– CHS Inc CN Pref has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – CHS Inc CN Pref staying ahead in the Crops industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– CHS Inc CN Pref is present in almost all the verticals within the Crops industry. This has provided CHS Inc CN 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Crops industry
– CHS Inc CN 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.
Organizational Resilience of CHS Inc CN Pref
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing CHS Inc CN Pref does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– CHS Inc CN 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.
Training and development
– CHS Inc CN Pref has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Digital Transformation in Crops industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For CHS Inc CN Pref digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. CHS Inc CN 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.
Ability to lead change in Crops
– CHS Inc CN Pref is one of the leading players in the Crops industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Crops industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled CHS Inc CN Pref in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of CHS Inc CN Pref comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Crops 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of CHS Inc CN Pref in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. CHS Inc CN Pref has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps CHS Inc CN Pref to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that CHS Inc CN 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Crops industry
– CHS Inc CN Pref has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled CHS Inc CN Pref to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Crops industry. The sustainable margins have also helped CHS Inc CN Pref to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses of CHS Inc CN Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CHS Inc CN Pref are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that CHS Inc CN 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 CN Pref can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as CHS Inc CN Pref is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of CHS Inc CN Pref products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, CHS Inc CN Pref needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though CHS Inc CN 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 CN Pref should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– CHS Inc CN Pref has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of CHS Inc CN Pref is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Crops industry, but CHS Inc CN 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 CN Pref to focus more on services in the Crops industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ less understanding of CHS Inc CN Pref strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of CHS Inc CN 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, CHS Inc CN Pref has high operating costs in the Crops industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract CHS Inc CN Pref lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Crops industry, CHS Inc CN 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.
High dependence on CHS Inc CN Pref ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of CHS Inc CN 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 CN Pref has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As CHS Inc CN 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, CHS Inc CN Pref has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
CHS Inc CN Pref Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of CHS Inc CN Pref are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, CHS Inc CN Pref can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that CHS Inc CN Pref operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Crops sector.
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 CHS Inc CN 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.
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 CN Pref in the Crops industry. Now CHS Inc CN Pref can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– CHS Inc CN 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects CHS Inc CN Pref can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at CHS Inc CN 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 Crops industry.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, CHS Inc CN Pref is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. CHS Inc CN Pref can utilize new technology in the field of Crops industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, CHS Inc CN 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for CHS Inc CN 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for CHS Inc CN Pref in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Crops industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Leveraging digital technologies
– CHS Inc CN 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– CHS Inc CN 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 CN Pref to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help CHS Inc CN Pref to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. CHS Inc CN Pref can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats CHS Inc CN Pref External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of CHS Inc CN Pref are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– CHS Inc CN 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 CN 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.
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 CN Pref in the Crops sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– CHS Inc CN 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 Crops 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.
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. CHS Inc CN 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, CHS Inc CN Pref may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Crops sector.
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 CN Pref needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Crops industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 CN Pref can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that CHS Inc CN Pref is facing in Crops sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Crops industry are lowering. It can presents CHS Inc CN Pref with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Crops sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, CHS Inc CN 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 CN Pref prominent markets.
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 CN Pref business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– CHS Inc CN Pref 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. CHS Inc CN Pref can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Crops industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CHS Inc CN 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 CN 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 CN 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 CN 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 CN 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 CN Pref needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
