Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Qwest Corp 6.875% is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Qwest Corp 6.875%
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Qwest Corp 6.875% can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Qwest Corp 6.875%, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Qwest Corp 6.875% can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Qwest Corp 6.875%
2. Improving business portfolio management of Qwest Corp 6.875%
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Communications Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Qwest Corp 6.875%
Strengths of Qwest Corp 6.875% | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Qwest Corp 6.875% are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Qwest Corp 6.875% has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Communications Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Qwest Corp 6.875% have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Qwest Corp 6.875% in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Qwest Corp 6.875% has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Qwest Corp 6.875% to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Qwest Corp 6.875% is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Qwest Corp 6.875% emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Qwest Corp 6.875% 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.
High brand equity
– Qwest Corp 6.875% has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Qwest Corp 6.875% to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Qwest Corp 6.875% in Communications Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Qwest Corp 6.875% has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Qwest Corp 6.875% staying ahead in the Communications Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Communications Services 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.
Organizational Resilience of Qwest Corp 6.875%
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Qwest Corp 6.875% does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Qwest Corp 6.875% 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
– Qwest Corp 6.875% is one of the most innovative firm in Communications Services sector.
Digital Transformation in Communications Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Qwest Corp 6.875% digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Qwest Corp 6.875% 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.
Weaknesses of Qwest Corp 6.875% | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Qwest Corp 6.875% are -
High bargaining power of channel partners in Communications Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Communications Services industry.
Skills based hiring in Communications Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Qwest Corp 6.875% 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Qwest Corp 6.875% 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Qwest Corp 6.875% products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Qwest Corp 6.875% needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on Qwest Corp 6.875% ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Qwest Corp 6.875% still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Communications Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Qwest Corp 6.875% has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ less understanding of Qwest Corp 6.875% strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Qwest Corp 6.875% 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Qwest Corp 6.875%, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Communications Services 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.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Qwest Corp 6.875% supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Qwest Corp 6.875% is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Qwest Corp 6.875% vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Qwest Corp 6.875% 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Qwest Corp 6.875% is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Communications Services industry, but Qwest Corp 6.875% needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Qwest Corp 6.875% to focus more on services in the Communications Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Qwest Corp 6.875% is just above the Communications Services 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.
Qwest Corp 6.875% Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Qwest Corp 6.875% are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Qwest Corp 6.875% to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Communications Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Qwest Corp 6.875% 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. Qwest Corp 6.875% 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Qwest Corp 6.875% can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Qwest Corp 6.875% operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Communications Services sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Communications Services industry.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Qwest Corp 6.875% to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Qwest Corp 6.875% can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Communications Services 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Qwest Corp 6.875% 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Qwest Corp 6.875% 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, Qwest Corp 6.875% is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Qwest Corp 6.875% can utilize new technology in the field of Communications Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Qwest Corp 6.875% can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Communications Services 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Communications Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Qwest Corp 6.875% in the Communications Services industry. Now Qwest Corp 6.875% can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Qwest Corp 6.875% in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Communications Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Loyalty marketing
– Qwest Corp 6.875% 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.
Threats Qwest Corp 6.875% External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Qwest Corp 6.875% are -
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 Qwest Corp 6.875% in the Communications Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Qwest Corp 6.875%
– 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 Qwest Corp 6.875%.
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 Qwest Corp 6.875% business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Qwest Corp 6.875% may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communications Services sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Qwest Corp 6.875% 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.
Environmental challenges
– Qwest Corp 6.875% 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. Qwest Corp 6.875% can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communications Services industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Communications Services industry are lowering. It can presents Qwest Corp 6.875% with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Communications Services sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Communications Services industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Qwest Corp 6.875% has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Communications Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Qwest Corp 6.875% needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Communications Services 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 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. Qwest Corp 6.875% needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Communications Services 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, Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Qwest Corp 6.875% prominent markets.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Communications Services industry and other sectors.
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. Qwest Corp 6.875% 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Qwest Corp 6.875% Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Qwest Corp 6.875% 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 Qwest Corp 6.875% needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.