Fortress Transport Infrast (FTAI) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Rental & Leasing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Fortress Transport Infrast (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Fortress Transport Infrast is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fortress Transport Infrast
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Fortress Transport Infrast can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fortress Transport Infrast, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Fortress Transport Infrast can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Fortress Transport Infrast
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fortress Transport Infrast
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Rental & Leasing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Fortress Transport Infrast
Strengths of Fortress Transport Infrast | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fortress Transport Infrast are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Fortress Transport Infrast is present in almost all the verticals within the Rental & Leasing industry. This has provided Fortress Transport Infrast 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.
High brand equity
– Fortress Transport Infrast has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fortress Transport Infrast to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fortress Transport Infrast has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Fortress Transport Infrast staying ahead in the Rental & Leasing industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Fortress Transport Infrast is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Fortress Transport Infrast emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Rental & Leasing industry
– Fortress Transport Infrast has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fortress Transport Infrast to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Rental & Leasing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fortress Transport Infrast to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fortress Transport Infrast in Rental & Leasing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Rental & Leasing industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fortress Transport Infrast digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fortress Transport Infrast 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Fortress Transport Infrast is one of the most innovative firm in Rental & Leasing sector.
Analytics focus
– Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Rental & Leasing 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.
Organizational Resilience of Fortress Transport Infrast
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Fortress Transport Infrast in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Fortress Transport Infrast has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Fortress Transport Infrast to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Fortress Transport Infrast comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Rental & Leasing 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.
Weaknesses of Fortress Transport Infrast | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Fortress Transport Infrast are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Rental & Leasing industry, Fortress Transport Infrast 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, Fortress Transport Infrast is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Fortress Transport Infrast to provide better information regarding Rental & Leasing products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Fortress Transport Infrast has high operating costs in the Rental & Leasing industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Fortress Transport Infrast lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Fortress Transport Infrast 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Fortress Transport Infrast is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Rental & Leasing industry, but Fortress Transport Infrast needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Fortress Transport Infrast to focus more on services in the Rental & Leasing industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Fortress Transport Infrast 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Fortress Transport Infrast needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Fortress Transport Infrast, in the dynamic environment of Rental & Leasing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fortress Transport Infrast has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Fortress Transport Infrast has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Rental & Leasing industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
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 Fortress Transport Infrast supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Fortress Transport Infrast is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Fortress Transport Infrast vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Fortress Transport Infrast has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Rental & Leasing industry over the last five years. Fortress Transport Infrast 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.
Fortress Transport Infrast Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Fortress Transport Infrast 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, Fortress Transport Infrast can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fortress Transport Infrast operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Rental & Leasing sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Fortress Transport Infrast can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Rental & Leasing 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Rental & Leasing industry.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fortress Transport Infrast in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Rental & Leasing industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fortress Transport Infrast can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Rental & Leasing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Fortress Transport Infrast can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Fortress Transport Infrast 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Fortress Transport Infrast 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fortress Transport Infrast 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Fortress Transport Infrast to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Fortress Transport Infrast 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Fortress Transport Infrast has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Rental & Leasing industry. This can help Fortress Transport Infrast to build a more holistic ecosystem for Fortress Transport Infrast products in the Rental & Leasing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Fortress Transport Infrast External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Fortress Transport Infrast are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Rental & Leasing industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Fortress Transport Infrast prominent markets.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fortress Transport Infrast is facing in Rental & Leasing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fortress Transport Infrast in Rental & Leasing industry. The Rental & Leasing 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fortress Transport Infrast has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Rental & Leasing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fortress Transport Infrast needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Rental & Leasing 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.
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 Fortress Transport Infrast.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Rental & Leasing industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fortress Transport Infrast can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Fortress Transport Infrast may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Rental & Leasing sector.
Increasing wage structure of Fortress Transport Infrast
– 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 Fortress Transport Infrast.
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. Fortress Transport Infrast needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Rental & Leasing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Fortress Transport Infrast 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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Fortress Transport Infrast 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. Fortress Transport Infrast can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Rental & Leasing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fortress Transport Infrast Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Fortress Transport Infrast 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 Fortress Transport Infrast needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.