Global Digital Soltn (GDSI) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Auto & Truck Manufacturers
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Global Digital Soltn (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Global Digital Soltn is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Global Digital Soltn
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Global Digital Soltn can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Global Digital Soltn, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Global Digital Soltn 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 Global Digital Soltn can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Global Digital Soltn
2. Improving business portfolio management of Global Digital Soltn
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Global Digital Soltn
Strengths of Global Digital Soltn | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Global Digital Soltn are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Global Digital Soltn has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Global Digital Soltn staying ahead in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Global Digital Soltn 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 Global Digital Soltn is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Global Digital Soltn emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Global Digital Soltn 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Global Digital Soltn is present in almost all the verticals within the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. This has provided Global Digital Soltn 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.
Digital Transformation in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Global Digital Soltn digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Global Digital Soltn 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 Global Digital Soltn in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Global Digital Soltn has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Global Digital Soltn to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Global Digital Soltn is one of the leading players in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
High brand equity
– Global Digital Soltn has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Global Digital Soltn to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Global Digital Soltn 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
– Global Digital Soltn has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Global Digital Soltn to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Global Digital Soltn to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Global Digital Soltn comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Global Digital Soltn in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses of Global Digital Soltn | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Global Digital Soltn 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 Global Digital Soltn supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Global Digital Soltn is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Global Digital Soltn vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Global Digital Soltn has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry, Global Digital Soltn 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.
Skills based hiring in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Global Digital Soltn 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.
High dependence on Global Digital Soltn ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Global Digital Soltn still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Global Digital Soltn has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Global Digital Soltn is just above the Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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 Global Digital Soltn is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry, but Global Digital Soltn needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Global Digital Soltn to focus more on services in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Global Digital Soltn products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Global Digital Soltn needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Global Digital Soltn has high operating costs in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Global Digital Soltn lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Global Digital Soltn needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Global Digital Soltn has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry over the last five years. Global Digital Soltn 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.
Global Digital Soltn Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Global Digital Soltn are -
Buying journey improvements
– Global Digital Soltn can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Global Digital Soltn 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Global Digital Soltn to increase its market reach. Global Digital Soltn 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Global Digital Soltn 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Global Digital Soltn 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 Global Digital Soltn to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Global Digital Soltn 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Global Digital Soltn has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Global Digital Soltn to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Global Digital Soltn to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Global Digital Soltn is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Global Digital Soltn can utilize new technology in the field of Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Global Digital Soltn 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Global Digital Soltn can develop new processes and procedures in Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Global Digital Soltn can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Global Digital Soltn operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Global Digital Soltn in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Global Digital Soltn has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. This can help Global Digital Soltn to build a more holistic ecosystem for Global Digital Soltn products in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Global Digital Soltn External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Global Digital Soltn are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Global Digital Soltn 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, Global Digital Soltn may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Global Digital Soltn is facing in Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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. Global Digital Soltn 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Global Digital Soltn has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Global Digital Soltn needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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, Global Digital Soltn 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 Global Digital Soltn prominent markets.
Regulatory challenges
– Global Digital Soltn 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry are lowering. It can presents Global Digital Soltn with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
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. Global Digital Soltn needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Global Digital Soltn
– 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 Global Digital Soltn.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Global Digital Soltn 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Global Digital Soltn Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Global Digital Soltn 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 Global Digital Soltn 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 Global Digital Soltn 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 Global Digital Soltn 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 Global Digital Soltn needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.