SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Lassonde Industries (Canada)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Lassonde Industries is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Lassonde Industries
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Lassonde Industries can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lassonde Industries, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lassonde Industries 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 Lassonde Industries can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Lassonde Industries
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lassonde Industries
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Canada
4. Making a Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Lassonde Industries
Strengths of Lassonde Industries | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Lassonde Industries are -
Ability to lead change in Beverages (Nonalcoholic)
– Lassonde Industries is one of the leading players in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry in Canada. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry in Canada but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Lassonde Industries in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Lassonde Industries 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.
Organizational Resilience of Lassonde Industries
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Lassonde Industries does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Lassonde Industries 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 Lassonde Industries have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Lassonde Industries has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Lassonde Industries staying ahead in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Lassonde Industries digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Lassonde Industries 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Lassonde Industries in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Lassonde Industries has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Lassonde Industries to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Lassonde Industries is one of the leading players in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry in Canada. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Canada. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry
– Lassonde Industries is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Lassonde Industries is present in almost all the verticals within the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. This has provided Lassonde Industries 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
– Lassonde Industries has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Lassonde Industries to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Lassonde Industries 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 Lassonde Industries is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Lassonde Industries emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of Lassonde Industries | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Lassonde Industries are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Lassonde Industries 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Lassonde Industries has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry over the last five years. Lassonde Industries 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Lassonde Industries is just above the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Lassonde Industries is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry, but Lassonde Industries needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Lassonde Industries to focus more on services in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ less understanding of Lassonde Industries strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Lassonde Industries 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Lassonde Industries is one of the leading players in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry in last five years.
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 Lassonde Industries supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Lassonde Industries is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Lassonde Industries vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Lassonde Industries has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Need for greater diversity
– Lassonde Industries 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry, Lassonde Industries 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Lassonde Industries 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 Lassonde Industries can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Lassonde Industries is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lassonde Industries Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Lassonde Industries are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Lassonde Industries 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Lassonde Industries 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 Lassonde Industries to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Lassonde Industries can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Lassonde Industries 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Lassonde Industries 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Lassonde Industries 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Lassonde Industries can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Lassonde Industries operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Lassonde Industries 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 Lassonde Industries to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Lassonde Industries can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Lassonde Industries to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
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 Lassonde Industries 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Lassonde Industries can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Lassonde Industries in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. Now Lassonde Industries can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Lassonde Industries External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Lassonde Industries are -
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Lassonde Industries 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.
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. Lassonde Industries 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 Lassonde Industries
– 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 Lassonde Industries.
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 Lassonde Industries in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Lassonde Industries is facing in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Lassonde Industries can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Lassonde Industries 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Lassonde Industries in Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. The Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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
– Lassonde Industries has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Lassonde Industries needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Lassonde Industries 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 Lassonde Industries prominent markets.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Lassonde Industries 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.
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 Lassonde Industries business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Lassonde Industries Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Lassonde Industries 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 Lassonde Industries 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 Lassonde Industries 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 Lassonde Industries 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 Lassonde Industries needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.