Chicago Rivet&Machine (CVR) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Misc. Fabricated Products
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Chicago Rivet&Machine (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Chicago Rivet&Machine is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Chicago Rivet&Machine
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Chicago Rivet&Machine can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Chicago Rivet&Machine, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Chicago Rivet&Machine can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Chicago Rivet&Machine
2. Improving business portfolio management of Chicago Rivet&Machine
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Misc. Fabricated Products sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Chicago Rivet&Machine
Strengths of Chicago Rivet&Machine | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Chicago Rivet&Machine are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Chicago Rivet&Machine in Misc. Fabricated Products industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Chicago Rivet&Machine has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Chicago Rivet&Machine to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Chicago Rivet&Machine is one of the leading players in the Misc. Fabricated Products 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Chicago Rivet&Machine has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Chicago Rivet&Machine staying ahead in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Misc. Fabricated Products industry
– Chicago Rivet&Machine has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Chicago Rivet&Machine to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Chicago Rivet&Machine to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Chicago Rivet&Machine is one of the most innovative firm in Misc. Fabricated Products sector.
Diverse revenue streams
– Chicago Rivet&Machine is present in almost all the verticals within the Misc. Fabricated Products industry. This has provided Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
Learning organization
- Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Chicago Rivet&Machine is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Chicago Rivet&Machine emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Chicago Rivet&Machine in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. Chicago Rivet&Machine has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Chicago Rivet&Machine to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Chicago Rivet&Machine has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Chicago Rivet&Machine 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
– Chicago Rivet&Machine has one of the best training and development program in Basic Materials 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.
Weaknesses of Chicago Rivet&Machine | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Chicago Rivet&Machine are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Chicago Rivet&Machine needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Chicago Rivet&Machine can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Chicago Rivet&Machine is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Chicago Rivet&Machine products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Chicago Rivet&Machine needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Chicago Rivet&Machine has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Misc. Fabricated Products 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Chicago Rivet&Machine has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry over the last five years. Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Chicago Rivet&Machine strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Chicago Rivet&Machine is one of the leading players in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry in last five years.
Need for greater diversity
– Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Chicago Rivet&Machine is just above the Misc. Fabricated Products 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 dependence on Chicago Rivet&Machine ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Chicago Rivet&Machine still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Misc. Fabricated Products industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Chicago Rivet&Machine has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Chicago Rivet&Machine has some of the most successful models in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Chicago Rivet&Machine should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Chicago Rivet&Machine Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Chicago Rivet&Machine are -
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. Chicago Rivet&Machine can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Chicago Rivet&Machine to increase its market reach. Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Chicago Rivet&Machine is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Chicago Rivet&Machine can utilize new technology in the field of Misc. Fabricated Products industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Chicago Rivet&Machine to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Misc. Fabricated Products industry.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Chicago Rivet&Machine has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Misc. Fabricated Products sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Chicago Rivet&Machine to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Chicago Rivet&Machine to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Chicago Rivet&Machine can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Chicago Rivet&Machine operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Misc. Fabricated Products 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 Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Misc. Fabricated Products industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Chicago Rivet&Machine in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry. Now Chicago Rivet&Machine can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Chicago Rivet&Machine External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Chicago Rivet&Machine are -
Increasing wage structure of Chicago Rivet&Machine
– 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 Chicago Rivet&Machine.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Misc. Fabricated Products 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. Chicago Rivet&Machine 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Misc. Fabricated Products industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Misc. Fabricated Products industry.
Environmental challenges
– Chicago Rivet&Machine 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. Chicago Rivet&Machine can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Chicago Rivet&Machine has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Chicago Rivet&Machine needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Misc. Fabricated Products 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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Chicago Rivet&Machine may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Misc. Fabricated Products sector.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Misc. Fabricated Products industry are lowering. It can presents Chicago Rivet&Machine with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Misc. Fabricated Products sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Chicago Rivet&Machine prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Chicago Rivet&Machine Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Chicago Rivet&Machine 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 Chicago Rivet&Machine needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.