SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for ATS Automation Tooling (Canada)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , ATS Automation Tooling is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of ATS Automation Tooling
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that ATS Automation Tooling can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the ATS Automation Tooling, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which ATS Automation Tooling 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 ATS Automation Tooling can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of ATS Automation Tooling
2. Improving business portfolio management of ATS Automation Tooling
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Canada
4. Making a Misc. Capital Goods sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of ATS Automation Tooling
Strengths of ATS Automation Tooling | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of ATS Automation Tooling are -
Digital Transformation in Misc. Capital Goods industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For ATS Automation Tooling digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. ATS Automation Tooling 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Misc. Capital Goods industry
– ATS Automation Tooling is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that ATS Automation Tooling 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– ATS Automation Tooling has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. ATS Automation Tooling 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of ATS Automation Tooling in Misc. Capital Goods industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the ATS Automation Tooling 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.
Learning organization
- ATS Automation Tooling 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 ATS Automation Tooling is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at ATS Automation Tooling emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of ATS Automation Tooling
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing ATS Automation Tooling does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of ATS Automation Tooling in the Capital Goods sector have low bargaining power. ATS Automation Tooling has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps ATS Automation Tooling to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– ATS Automation Tooling has one of the best training and development program in Capital Goods 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of ATS Automation Tooling comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Misc. Capital Goods industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Misc. Capital Goods industry
– ATS Automation Tooling has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled ATS Automation Tooling to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Misc. Capital Goods industry. The sustainable margins have also helped ATS Automation Tooling to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses of ATS Automation Tooling | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of ATS Automation Tooling are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of ATS Automation Tooling is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Misc. Capital Goods industry, but ATS Automation Tooling needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help ATS Automation Tooling to focus more on services in the Misc. Capital Goods industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at ATS Automation Tooling, in the dynamic environment of Misc. Capital Goods industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. ATS Automation Tooling has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, ATS Automation Tooling 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. Capital Goods industry over the last five years. ATS Automation Tooling 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.
Skills based hiring in Misc. Capital Goods industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at ATS Automation Tooling 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that ATS Automation Tooling needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Misc. Capital Goods industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at ATS Automation Tooling can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as ATS Automation Tooling is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Misc. Capital Goods industry, ATS Automation Tooling 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, ATS Automation Tooling is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help ATS Automation Tooling to provide better information regarding Misc. Capital Goods products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ less understanding of ATS Automation Tooling strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of ATS Automation Tooling 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.
High dependence on ATS Automation Tooling ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of ATS Automation Tooling still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Misc. Capital Goods industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though ATS Automation Tooling has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, ATS Automation Tooling 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry using digital technology.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Misc. Capital Goods industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Canada, ATS Automation Tooling 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry.
ATS Automation Tooling Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of ATS Automation Tooling are -
Buying journey improvements
– ATS Automation Tooling can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Misc. Capital Goods 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– ATS Automation Tooling 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 ATS Automation Tooling can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for ATS Automation Tooling 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 ATS Automation Tooling to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– ATS Automation Tooling has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Misc. Capital Goods sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled ATS Automation Tooling to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help ATS Automation Tooling to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– ATS Automation Tooling can develop new processes and procedures in Misc. Capital Goods industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of ATS Automation Tooling has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Misc. Capital Goods industry. This can help ATS Automation Tooling to build a more holistic ecosystem for ATS Automation Tooling products in the Misc. Capital Goods industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, ATS Automation Tooling 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, ATS Automation Tooling 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 ATS Automation Tooling 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 Misc. Capital Goods industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. ATS Automation Tooling can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– ATS Automation Tooling can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Misc. Capital Goods 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Misc. Capital Goods industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for ATS Automation Tooling in the Misc. Capital Goods industry. Now ATS Automation Tooling can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help ATS Automation Tooling to increase its market reach. ATS Automation Tooling 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.
Threats ATS Automation Tooling External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of ATS Automation Tooling are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– ATS Automation Tooling 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Misc. Capital Goods industry are lowering. It can presents ATS Automation Tooling with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Misc. Capital Goods sector.
Environmental challenges
– ATS Automation Tooling 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. ATS Automation Tooling can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Misc. Capital Goods industry.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, ATS Automation Tooling 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 ATS Automation Tooling prominent markets.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that ATS Automation Tooling is facing in Misc. Capital Goods 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. ATS Automation Tooling needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Misc. Capital Goods industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of ATS Automation Tooling
– 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 ATS Automation Tooling.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for ATS Automation Tooling in Misc. Capital Goods industry. The Misc. Capital Goods 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on ATS Automation Tooling 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. Capital Goods industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, ATS Automation Tooling 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. Capital Goods 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 ATS Automation Tooling in the Misc. Capital Goods sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 ATS Automation Tooling.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of ATS Automation Tooling Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at ATS Automation Tooling 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 ATS Automation Tooling 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 ATS Automation Tooling 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 ATS Automation Tooling 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 ATS Automation Tooling needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
