National Beverage (FIZZ) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for National Beverage (United States)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , National Beverage is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of National Beverage

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that National Beverage can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the National Beverage, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which National Beverage 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of National Beverage can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of National Beverage
2. Improving business portfolio management of National Beverage
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of National Beverage

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Strengths of National Beverage | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of National Beverage are -

Organizational Resilience of National Beverage

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing National Beverage does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the National Beverage 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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– National Beverage is one of the leading players in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry

– National Beverage has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled National Beverage to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped National Beverage to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Learning organization

- National Beverage 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 National Beverage is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at National Beverage emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Digital Transformation in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For National Beverage digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. National Beverage 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.

Training and development

– National Beverage has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical 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.

Strong track record of project management in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry

– National Beverage is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Successful track record of launching new products

– National Beverage has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. National Beverage 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 National Beverage 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– National Beverage is present in almost all the verticals within the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. This has provided National Beverage 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– National Beverage has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of National Beverage have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

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Weaknesses of National Beverage | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of National Beverage are -

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 National Beverage supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, National Beverage is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left National Beverage 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, National Beverage is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help National Beverage to provide better information regarding Beverages (Nonalcoholic) products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that National Beverage needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at National Beverage can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as National Beverage is planning to shift buying processes online.

Employees’ less understanding of National Beverage strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of National Beverage 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.

Skills based hiring in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at National Beverage 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry, National Beverage 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.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of United States, National Beverage needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Need for greater diversity

– National Beverage 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 National Beverage ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of National Beverage still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though National Beverage has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, National Beverage 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 Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry using digital technology.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, National Beverage has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

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National Beverage Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of National Beverage are -

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– National Beverage has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled National Beverage to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help National Beverage to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects National Beverage can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, National Beverage can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that National Beverage operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for National Beverage in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help National Beverage to increase its market reach. National Beverage 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

– National Beverage 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– National Beverage can develop new processes and procedures in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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 National Beverage 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 Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry.

Buying journey improvements

– National Beverage can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, National Beverage 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 National Beverage to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, National Beverage 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.

Manufacturing automation

– National Beverage can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of National Beverage has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. This can help National Beverage to build a more holistic ecosystem for National Beverage products in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

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Threats National Beverage External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of National Beverage are -

Regulatory challenges

– National Beverage 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 Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry regulations.

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 National Beverage business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– National Beverage 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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, National Beverage may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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. National Beverage needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– National Beverage 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 Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry.

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 National Beverage in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Consumer confidence and its impact on National Beverage 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 Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry and other sectors.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. National Beverage can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Environmental challenges

– National Beverage 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. National Beverage can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that National Beverage is facing in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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. National Beverage 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.

Increasing wage structure of National Beverage

– 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 National Beverage.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of National Beverage Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at National Beverage 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 National Beverage 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 National Beverage 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 National Beverage 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 National Beverage needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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