CHS Inc CO Pref (CHSCO) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Crops
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for CHS Inc CO Pref (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , CHS Inc CO Pref is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that CHS Inc CO Pref can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the CHS Inc CO Pref, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which CHS Inc CO 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 CO Pref can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of CHS Inc CO Pref
2. Improving business portfolio management of CHS Inc CO 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 CO Pref
Strengths of CHS Inc CO Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of CHS Inc CO Pref are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that CHS Inc CO 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– CHS Inc CO 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 CO 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.
Innovation driven organization
– CHS Inc CO Pref is one of the most innovative firm in Crops sector.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the CHS Inc CO 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.
Learning organization
- CHS Inc CO 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 CO Pref is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at CHS Inc CO Pref emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Crops industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For CHS Inc CO Pref digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. CHS Inc CO 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Crops industry
– CHS Inc CO Pref has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled CHS Inc CO Pref to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Crops industry. The sustainable margins have also helped CHS Inc CO Pref to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of CHS Inc CO Pref in Crops industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– CHS Inc CO 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.
Analytics focus
– CHS Inc CO 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.
High brand equity
– CHS Inc CO Pref has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled CHS Inc CO Pref to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of CHS Inc CO Pref
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing CHS Inc CO Pref does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses of CHS Inc CO Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CHS Inc CO Pref are -
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of CHS Inc CO 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 CO Pref products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, CHS Inc CO Pref needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, CHS Inc CO Pref is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help CHS Inc CO Pref to provide better information regarding Crops products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of CHS Inc CO 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, CHS Inc CO 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 CO Pref lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Crops industry, CHS Inc CO 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 CO 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 CO Pref should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, CHS Inc CO Pref needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, CHS Inc CO Pref 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 Crops industry using digital technology.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at CHS Inc CO Pref, in the dynamic environment of Crops industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. CHS Inc CO Pref has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
CHS Inc CO Pref has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Crops industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
CHS Inc CO Pref Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of CHS Inc CO Pref are -
Loyalty marketing
– CHS Inc CO 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.
Buying journey improvements
– CHS Inc CO 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects CHS Inc CO Pref can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 CO 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help CHS Inc CO Pref to increase its market reach. CHS Inc CO Pref will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at CHS Inc CO 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for CHS Inc CO 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, CHS Inc CO 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 CO 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.
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 CO Pref can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 CO Pref can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that CHS Inc CO Pref operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Crops sector.
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 CO Pref can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 CO Pref in the Crops industry. Now CHS Inc CO Pref can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– CHS Inc CO 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.
Threats CHS Inc CO Pref External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of CHS Inc CO Pref are -
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 CO Pref business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 CO Pref needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Crops industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– CHS Inc CO 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 CO Pref can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Crops industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on CHS Inc CO 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.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, CHS Inc CO 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 CO Pref prominent markets.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– CHS Inc CO Pref high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for CHS Inc CO 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.
Regulatory challenges
– CHS Inc CO 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.
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 CHS Inc CO Pref.
Increasing wage structure of CHS Inc CO 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 CO Pref.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that CHS Inc CO Pref is facing in Crops sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CHS Inc CO 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 CO 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 CO 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 CO 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 CO 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 CO Pref needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.