Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd
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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd
Strengths of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd are -
Digital Transformation in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
High brand equity
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd is one of the most innovative firm in Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Auto & Truck Manufacturers
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd is one of the leading players in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd are -
Employees’ less understanding of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd, in the dynamic environment of Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry, but Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd to focus more on services in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry.
Skills based hiring in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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. Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
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. Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd to increase its market reach. Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
Threats Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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
– Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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. Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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 Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry and other sectors.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd is facing in Auto & Truck Manufacturers sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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, Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd prominent markets.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry are lowering. It can presents Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
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. Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd in Auto & Truck Manufacturers industry. The Auto & Truck Manufacturers 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.
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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd 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 Hystr Yl Mrl Hnd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
