Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Costamare Inc Pb Pref is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Costamare Inc Pb Pref
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Costamare Inc Pb Pref can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Costamare Inc Pb Pref, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Costamare Inc Pb 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 Costamare Inc Pb Pref can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Costamare Inc Pb Pref
2. Improving business portfolio management of Costamare Inc Pb Pref
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Water Transportation sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Costamare Inc Pb Pref
Strengths of Costamare Inc Pb Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Costamare Inc Pb Pref are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Costamare Inc Pb Pref is present in almost all the verticals within the Water Transportation industry. This has provided Costamare Inc Pb 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 Water Transportation industry
– Costamare Inc Pb 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Costamare Inc Pb Pref comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Water Transportation 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Costamare Inc Pb Pref has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Costamare Inc Pb 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.
Training and development
– Costamare Inc Pb Pref has one of the best training and development program in Transportation 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Costamare Inc Pb Pref has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Water Transportation industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Costamare Inc Pb Pref have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Costamare Inc Pb Pref in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. Costamare Inc Pb Pref has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Costamare Inc Pb Pref to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Costamare Inc Pb Pref in Water Transportation industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Costamare Inc Pb Pref has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Costamare Inc Pb Pref staying ahead in the Water Transportation industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Water Transportation industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Costamare Inc Pb Pref digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Costamare Inc Pb 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Costamare Inc Pb 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.
High brand equity
– Costamare Inc Pb Pref has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Costamare Inc Pb Pref to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses of Costamare Inc Pb Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Costamare Inc Pb Pref are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Costamare Inc Pb Pref is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Water Transportation industry, but Costamare Inc Pb Pref needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Costamare Inc Pb Pref to focus more on services in the Water Transportation industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Costamare Inc Pb Pref has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Water Transportation industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Employees’ less understanding of Costamare Inc Pb Pref strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Costamare Inc Pb 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Costamare Inc Pb Pref needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Costamare Inc Pb Pref is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Costamare Inc Pb Pref to provide better information regarding Water Transportation products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Costamare Inc Pb Pref, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Water Transportation 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Costamare Inc Pb Pref has some of the most successful models in the Water Transportation industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Costamare Inc Pb Pref should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on Costamare Inc Pb Pref ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Costamare Inc Pb Pref still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Water Transportation industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Costamare Inc Pb Pref has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring in Water Transportation industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Costamare Inc Pb Pref 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Costamare Inc Pb Pref is one of the leading players in the Water Transportation industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Water Transportation industry in last five years.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Costamare Inc Pb Pref, in the dynamic environment of Water Transportation industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Costamare Inc Pb Pref has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Costamare Inc Pb Pref Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Costamare Inc Pb Pref are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Costamare Inc Pb Pref to increase its market reach. Costamare Inc Pb 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Costamare Inc Pb Pref has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Water Transportation sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Costamare Inc Pb Pref to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Costamare Inc Pb Pref to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Costamare Inc Pb Pref can develop new processes and procedures in Water Transportation industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Costamare Inc Pb 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Costamare Inc Pb Pref can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Costamare Inc Pb 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Costamare Inc Pb Pref can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Costamare Inc Pb Pref operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Water Transportation sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Costamare Inc Pb 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 Water Transportation industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Costamare Inc Pb 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Costamare Inc Pb Pref can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Water Transportation 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.
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 Costamare Inc Pb 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Costamare Inc Pb Pref has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Water Transportation industry. This can help Costamare Inc Pb Pref to build a more holistic ecosystem for Costamare Inc Pb Pref products in the Water Transportation industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Costamare Inc Pb Pref is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Costamare Inc Pb Pref can utilize new technology in the field of Water Transportation industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Threats Costamare Inc Pb Pref External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Costamare Inc Pb Pref are -
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. Costamare Inc Pb Pref needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Water Transportation industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Water Transportation industry are lowering. It can presents Costamare Inc Pb Pref with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Water Transportation sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Costamare Inc Pb 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Costamare Inc Pb 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 Water Transportation industry and other sectors.
Environmental challenges
– Costamare Inc Pb 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. Costamare Inc Pb Pref can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Water Transportation industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Costamare Inc Pb 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 Water Transportation sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Costamare Inc Pb Pref in Water Transportation industry. The Water Transportation 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Water Transportation industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Costamare Inc Pb Pref can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Costamare Inc Pb 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 Costamare Inc Pb Pref.
Regulatory challenges
– Costamare Inc Pb 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 Water Transportation industry regulations.
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. Costamare Inc Pb 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Costamare Inc Pb Pref is facing in Water Transportation sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Costamare Inc Pb Pref Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Costamare Inc Pb 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 Costamare Inc Pb 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 Costamare Inc Pb 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 Costamare Inc Pb 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 Costamare Inc Pb Pref needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.