Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Ctx Virtual Tech is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Ctx Virtual Tech can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ctx Virtual Tech, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Ctx Virtual Tech can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Ctx Virtual Tech
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ctx Virtual Tech
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Computer Peripherals sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ctx Virtual Tech
Strengths of Ctx Virtual Tech | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ctx Virtual Tech are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Computer Peripherals industry
– Ctx Virtual Tech has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ctx Virtual Tech to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Computer Peripherals industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ctx Virtual Tech to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ctx Virtual Tech is one of the leading players in the Computer Peripherals 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ctx Virtual Tech has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Computer Peripherals industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Ctx Virtual Tech have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management in the Computer Peripherals industry
– Ctx Virtual Tech is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Ctx Virtual Tech is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Ctx Virtual Tech emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Ctx Virtual Tech has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ctx Virtual Tech to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Ctx Virtual Tech has one of the best training and development program in Technology 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ctx Virtual Tech in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. Ctx Virtual Tech has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ctx Virtual Tech to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Ctx Virtual Tech is one of the most innovative firm in Computer Peripherals sector.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ctx Virtual Tech has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Ctx Virtual Tech staying ahead in the Computer Peripherals industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Computer Peripherals 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.
Ability to lead change in Computer Peripherals
– Ctx Virtual Tech is one of the leading players in the Computer Peripherals industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Computer Peripherals industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Ctx Virtual Tech in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Ctx Virtual Tech | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ctx Virtual Tech are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ctx Virtual Tech has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Computer Peripherals industry over the last five years. Ctx Virtual Tech even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Employees’ less understanding of Ctx Virtual Tech strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Ctx Virtual Tech 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, Ctx Virtual Tech needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring in Computer Peripherals industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ctx Virtual Tech 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Ctx Virtual Tech, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Computer Peripherals 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Ctx Virtual Tech needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Computer Peripherals industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Ctx Virtual Tech can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ctx Virtual Tech is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Ctx Virtual Tech is just above the Computer Peripherals 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ctx Virtual Tech products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ctx Virtual Tech needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Ctx Virtual Tech has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Computer Peripherals industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ctx Virtual Tech is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Ctx Virtual Tech to provide better information regarding Computer Peripherals products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on Ctx Virtual Tech ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Ctx Virtual Tech still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Computer Peripherals industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Ctx Virtual Tech has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ctx Virtual Tech Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Ctx Virtual Tech are -
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 Ctx Virtual Tech 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ctx Virtual Tech can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Computer Peripherals 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ctx Virtual Tech 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Ctx Virtual Tech to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ctx Virtual Tech to increase its market reach. Ctx Virtual Tech 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Computer Peripherals industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ctx Virtual Tech 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. Ctx Virtual Tech 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ctx Virtual Tech 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ctx Virtual Tech can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Computer Peripherals industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Computer Peripherals industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Ctx Virtual Tech in the Computer Peripherals industry. Now Ctx Virtual Tech can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Computer Peripherals industry.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ctx Virtual Tech in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Computer Peripherals industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Ctx Virtual Tech External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Ctx Virtual Tech 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ctx Virtual Tech in Computer Peripherals industry. The Computer Peripherals 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 Ctx Virtual Tech is facing in Computer Peripherals sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Ctx Virtual Tech 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. Ctx Virtual Tech can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Computer Peripherals industry.
Increasing wage structure of Ctx Virtual Tech
– 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 Ctx Virtual Tech.
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 Ctx Virtual Tech 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, Ctx Virtual Tech may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Computer Peripherals 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. Ctx Virtual Tech needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Computer Peripherals industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Computer Peripherals industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Ctx Virtual Tech prominent markets.
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.
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 Ctx Virtual Tech in the Computer Peripherals sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Computer Peripherals industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ctx Virtual Tech Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Ctx Virtual Tech 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 Ctx Virtual Tech needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
