Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, 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 -
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.
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.
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.
Analytics focus
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref 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 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 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.
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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Diana Shipping 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.
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.
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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Diana Shipping 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 – Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
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 -
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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref is one of the leading players in the industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Need for greater diversity
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref 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.
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.
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.
Employees’ less understanding of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Diana Shipping 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.
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.
Skills based hiring in industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Diana Shipping 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref 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 industry.
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.
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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in industry. This can help Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref to build a more holistic ecosystem for Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref products in the industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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.
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.
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.
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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Diana Shipping 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 -
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.
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 Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Diana Shipping 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Diana Shipping Inc Pb Pref in industry. The 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
