SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Emerald Expositions (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Emerald Expositions is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing,
technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Emerald Expositions
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Emerald Expositions can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Emerald Expositions, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Emerald Expositions 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 Emerald Expositions can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Emerald Expositions
2. Improving business portfolio management of Emerald Expositions
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Business Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Emerald Expositions
Strengths of Emerald Expositions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Emerald Expositions are -
High brand equity
– Emerald Expositions has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Emerald Expositions to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Emerald Expositions
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Emerald Expositions does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Business Services
– Emerald Expositions is one of the leading players in the Business Services industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Business Services industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Emerald Expositions in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Emerald Expositions has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Emerald Expositions 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Emerald Expositions 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Emerald Expositions has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Emerald Expositions staying ahead in the Business Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Emerald Expositions has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Business Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Emerald Expositions have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Emerald Expositions in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Emerald Expositions has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Emerald Expositions to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Business Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Emerald Expositions digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Emerald Expositions 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.
Analytics focus
– Emerald Expositions 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 Business Services 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Business Services industry
– Emerald Expositions has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Emerald Expositions to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Business Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Emerald Expositions to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management in the Business Services industry
– Emerald Expositions is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of Emerald Expositions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Emerald Expositions are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Emerald Expositions has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Business Services industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Emerald Expositions is one of the leading players in the Business Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Business Services industry in last five years.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Business Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Emerald Expositions 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 Business Services industry.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Emerald Expositions needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Emerald Expositions has some of the most successful models in the Business Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Emerald Expositions should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Business Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Emerald Expositions 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 Emerald Expositions needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Business Services industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Emerald Expositions can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Emerald Expositions is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Emerald Expositions is just above the Business Services 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 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 Emerald Expositions supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Emerald Expositions is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Emerald Expositions vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Emerald Expositions is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Business Services industry, but Emerald Expositions needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Emerald Expositions to focus more on services in the Business Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Emerald Expositions, in the dynamic environment of Business Services industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Emerald Expositions has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Emerald Expositions Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Emerald Expositions are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Emerald Expositions 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 Emerald Expositions to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Emerald Expositions can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Emerald Expositions can develop new processes and procedures in Business Services 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Emerald Expositions 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 Business Services industry.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Emerald Expositions 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Emerald Expositions in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Business Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Emerald Expositions has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Business Services industry. This can help Emerald Expositions to build a more holistic ecosystem for Emerald Expositions products in the Business Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Emerald Expositions can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Business Services 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Emerald Expositions is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Emerald Expositions can utilize new technology in the field of Business Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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 Emerald Expositions 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Emerald Expositions can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Emerald Expositions operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Business Services sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Emerald Expositions to increase its market reach. Emerald Expositions 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Emerald Expositions can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Business Services 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.
Threats Emerald Expositions External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Emerald Expositions are -
Increasing wage structure of Emerald Expositions
– 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 Emerald Expositions.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Emerald Expositions 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.
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 Emerald Expositions in the Business Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Emerald Expositions business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Emerald Expositions 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. Emerald Expositions can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Business Services industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Business Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Emerald Expositions can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Emerald Expositions 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 Business Services industry and other sectors.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Business Services industry are lowering. It can presents Emerald Expositions with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Business Services sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Emerald Expositions 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 Emerald Expositions 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. Emerald Expositions 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
– Emerald Expositions 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 Business Services industry regulations.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Emerald Expositions is facing in Business Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Emerald Expositions may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Business Services sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Emerald Expositions Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Emerald Expositions 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 Emerald Expositions 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 Emerald Expositions 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 Emerald Expositions 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 Emerald Expositions needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.