Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Diana Shipping 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 Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref
2. Improving business portfolio management of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref
Strengths of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref are -
Innovation driven organization
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is one of the most innovative firm in sector.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref in the sector have low bargaining power. Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided Diana Shipping 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is one of the leading players in the 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.
Training and development
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has one of the best training and development program in 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.
Ability to lead change in
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is one of the leading players in the industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in industry
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Diana Shipping 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.
Weaknesses of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the industry, Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref 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 industry.
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 Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref, in the dynamic environment of industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the industry, but Diana Shipping 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 Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref to focus more on services in the industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has some of the most successful models in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Diana Shipping 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Diana Shipping 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 industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref to increase its market reach. Diana Shipping 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.
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 Diana Shipping 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Diana Shipping 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in sector.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref in the industry. Now Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref can utilize new technology in the field of industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Diana Shipping 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.
Threats Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref prominent markets.
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. Diana Shipping 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Diana Shipping 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 industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Diana Shipping 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 industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Diana Shipping 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 sector.
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 Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref in the sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to industry are lowering. It can presents Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Diana Shipping 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. Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the industry.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref.
Increasing wage structure of Diana Shipping 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 Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref 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 industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is facing in sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref needs to understand the core reasons impacting the industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Diana Shipping 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 Diana Shipping 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 Diana Shipping 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 Diana Shipping 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 Diana Shipping 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 Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.