Genesee&Wyoming (GWR) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Railroads
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Genesee&Wyoming (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Genesee&Wyoming is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
technology disruption, increasing energy prices, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Genesee&Wyoming can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Genesee&Wyoming, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Genesee&Wyoming 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 Genesee&Wyoming can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Genesee&Wyoming
2. Improving business portfolio management of Genesee&Wyoming
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Railroads sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Genesee&Wyoming
Strengths of Genesee&Wyoming | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Genesee&Wyoming are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Genesee&Wyoming has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Railroads industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Genesee&Wyoming have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Genesee&Wyoming in Railroads industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Genesee&Wyoming 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.
Organizational Resilience of Genesee&Wyoming
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Genesee&Wyoming does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Genesee&Wyoming is one of the leading players in the Railroads 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.
Analytics focus
– Genesee&Wyoming 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 Railroads 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Railroads industry
– Genesee&Wyoming is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Railroads industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Genesee&Wyoming digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Genesee&Wyoming 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.
Learning organization
- Genesee&Wyoming 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 Genesee&Wyoming is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Genesee&Wyoming emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Genesee&Wyoming is one of the most innovative firm in Railroads sector.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Genesee&Wyoming comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Railroads 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.
Training and development
– Genesee&Wyoming has one of the best training and development program in Transportation 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.
Weaknesses of Genesee&Wyoming | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Genesee&Wyoming are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Genesee&Wyoming is just above the Railroads 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 Genesee&Wyoming is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Railroads industry, but Genesee&Wyoming needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Genesee&Wyoming to focus more on services in the Railroads industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Railroads industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Genesee&Wyoming is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Railroads industry.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Genesee&Wyoming, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Railroads industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Genesee&Wyoming has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Railroads industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Genesee&Wyoming 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 Railroads industry using digital technology.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Genesee&Wyoming needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Railroads industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Genesee&Wyoming can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Genesee&Wyoming is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Railroads industry, Genesee&Wyoming 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, Genesee&Wyoming is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Genesee&Wyoming to provide better information regarding Railroads products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ less understanding of Genesee&Wyoming strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Genesee&Wyoming 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 Railroads industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Genesee&Wyoming 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.
Genesee&Wyoming Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Genesee&Wyoming are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Genesee&Wyoming 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Genesee&Wyoming 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, Genesee&Wyoming can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Genesee&Wyoming operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Railroads sector.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Railroads industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Genesee&Wyoming can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Genesee&Wyoming 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Genesee&Wyoming can develop new processes and procedures in Railroads 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Genesee&Wyoming 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Genesee&Wyoming is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Genesee&Wyoming can utilize new technology in the field of Railroads 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 Genesee&Wyoming 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Genesee&Wyoming 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 Railroads industry.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Genesee&Wyoming has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Railroads industry. This can help Genesee&Wyoming to build a more holistic ecosystem for Genesee&Wyoming products in the Railroads industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Railroads industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Genesee&Wyoming can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Genesee&Wyoming can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Genesee&Wyoming 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 Genesee&Wyoming to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Genesee&Wyoming External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Genesee&Wyoming are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Railroads industry are lowering. It can presents Genesee&Wyoming with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Railroads sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Genesee&Wyoming in Railroads industry. The Railroads 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.
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. Genesee&Wyoming needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Railroads industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Genesee&Wyoming in the Railroads sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Genesee&Wyoming is facing in Railroads sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Genesee&Wyoming 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.
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 Genesee&Wyoming business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Genesee&Wyoming has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Railroads industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Genesee&Wyoming needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Railroads 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.
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. Genesee&Wyoming 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Railroads industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Genesee&Wyoming 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
– Genesee&Wyoming 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. Genesee&Wyoming can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Railroads industry.
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 Genesee&Wyoming.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Genesee&Wyoming 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 Railroads industry and other sectors.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Genesee&Wyoming Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Genesee&Wyoming 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 Genesee&Wyoming 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 Genesee&Wyoming 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 Genesee&Wyoming 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 Genesee&Wyoming needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.