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 – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, 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 -
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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Genesee&Wyoming is present in almost all the verticals within the Railroads industry. This has provided Genesee&Wyoming 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.
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.
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 lead change in Railroads
– Genesee&Wyoming is one of the leading players in the Railroads industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Railroads industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Genesee&Wyoming in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
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.
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.
High brand equity
– Genesee&Wyoming has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Genesee&Wyoming to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
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.
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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Genesee&Wyoming in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. Genesee&Wyoming has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Genesee&Wyoming to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Genesee&Wyoming is one of the most innovative firm in Railroads sector.
Weaknesses of Genesee&Wyoming | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Genesee&Wyoming are -
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.
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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Genesee&Wyoming products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Genesee&Wyoming needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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.
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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Genesee&Wyoming needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Genesee&Wyoming 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Genesee&Wyoming has some of the most successful models in the Railroads industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Genesee&Wyoming should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Genesee&Wyoming 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Genesee&Wyoming has high operating costs in the Railroads industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Genesee&Wyoming lucrative customers.
Genesee&Wyoming Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Genesee&Wyoming are -
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.
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.
Manufacturing automation
– Genesee&Wyoming can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Railroads sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
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.
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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Genesee&Wyoming to increase its market reach. Genesee&Wyoming 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.
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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Genesee&Wyoming 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 Genesee&Wyoming 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
– 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Railroads industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Genesee&Wyoming in the Railroads industry. Now Genesee&Wyoming can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Genesee&Wyoming in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Railroads industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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.
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.
Threats Genesee&Wyoming External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Genesee&Wyoming are -
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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Genesee&Wyoming 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 Genesee&Wyoming prominent markets.
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.
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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Genesee&Wyoming may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Railroads sector.
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.
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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Genesee&Wyoming can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the Railroads industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Genesee&Wyoming 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 Railroads industry regulations.
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.