Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref (HT_pc) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref
Strengths of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Digital Transformation in industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref in the sector have low bargaining power. Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref is one of the most innovative firm in sector.
Learning organization
- Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref has high operating costs in the industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners in industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 industry.
High dependence on Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ less understanding of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact 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.
Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in sector.
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. Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref to increase its market reach. Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref can develop new processes and procedures in 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref can utilize new technology in the field of industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 industry.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in 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.
Threats Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref.
Environmental challenges
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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. Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the industry.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 industry and other sectors.
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 Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref is facing in sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref
– 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 Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref 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 Hersha Hospitality Trust Pc Pref needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
