ICL Israel Chemicals (ICL) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Chemical Manufacturing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for ICL Israel Chemicals (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , ICL Israel Chemicals is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of ICL Israel Chemicals
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that ICL Israel Chemicals can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the ICL Israel Chemicals, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which ICL Israel Chemicals 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 ICL Israel Chemicals can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of ICL Israel Chemicals
2. Improving business portfolio management of ICL Israel Chemicals
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Chemical Manufacturing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of ICL Israel Chemicals
Strengths of ICL Israel Chemicals | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of ICL Israel Chemicals are -
Strong track record of project management in the Chemical Manufacturing industry
– ICL Israel Chemicals is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of ICL Israel Chemicals in Chemical Manufacturing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of ICL Israel Chemicals in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. ICL Israel Chemicals has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps ICL Israel Chemicals to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that ICL Israel Chemicals 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.
Organizational Resilience of ICL Israel Chemicals
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing ICL Israel Chemicals does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- ICL Israel Chemicals 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 ICL Israel Chemicals is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at ICL Israel Chemicals emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– ICL Israel Chemicals is one of the most innovative firm in Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Successful track record of launching new products
– ICL Israel Chemicals has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. ICL Israel Chemicals 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.
Analytics focus
– ICL Israel Chemicals 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 Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– ICL Israel Chemicals is present in almost all the verticals within the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This has provided ICL Israel Chemicals 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– ICL Israel Chemicals is one of the leading players in the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of ICL Israel Chemicals comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Weaknesses of ICL Israel Chemicals | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of ICL Israel Chemicals are -
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of ICL Israel Chemicals, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, ICL Israel Chemicals 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry using digital technology.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, ICL Israel Chemicals is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help ICL Israel Chemicals to provide better information regarding Chemical Manufacturing products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, ICL Israel Chemicals has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Chemical Manufacturing industry over the last five years. ICL Israel Chemicals 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.
Employees’ less understanding of ICL Israel Chemicals strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of ICL Israel Chemicals 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, ICL Israel Chemicals needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on ICL Israel Chemicals ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of ICL Israel Chemicals still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Chemical Manufacturing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though ICL Israel Chemicals has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at ICL Israel Chemicals, in the dynamic environment of Chemical Manufacturing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. ICL Israel Chemicals has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that ICL Israel Chemicals needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Chemical Manufacturing industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at ICL Israel Chemicals can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as ICL Israel Chemicals is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though ICL Israel Chemicals has some of the most successful models in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. ICL Israel Chemicals should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of ICL Israel Chemicals is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Chemical Manufacturing industry, but ICL Israel Chemicals needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help ICL Israel Chemicals to focus more on services in the Chemical Manufacturing industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
ICL Israel Chemicals Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of ICL Israel Chemicals are -
Buying journey improvements
– ICL Israel Chemicals can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– ICL Israel Chemicals 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, ICL Israel Chemicals 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 ICL Israel Chemicals to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for ICL Israel Chemicals 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 ICL Israel Chemicals to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of ICL Israel Chemicals has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Chemical Manufacturing industry. This can help ICL Israel Chemicals to build a more holistic ecosystem for ICL Israel Chemicals products in the Chemical Manufacturing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. ICL Israel Chemicals 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, ICL Israel Chemicals can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that ICL Israel Chemicals operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help ICL Israel Chemicals to increase its market reach. ICL Israel Chemicals 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 ICL Israel Chemicals can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at ICL Israel Chemicals 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 Chemical Manufacturing industry.
Developing new processes and practices
– ICL Israel Chemicals can develop new processes and procedures in Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– ICL Israel Chemicals has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Chemical Manufacturing sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled ICL Israel Chemicals to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help ICL Israel Chemicals to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for ICL Israel Chemicals 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.
Threats ICL Israel Chemicals External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of ICL Israel Chemicals are -
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 ICL Israel Chemicals in the Chemical Manufacturing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that ICL Israel Chemicals is facing in Chemical Manufacturing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 ICL Israel Chemicals.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Chemical Manufacturing industry are lowering. It can presents ICL Israel Chemicals with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Chemical Manufacturing sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, ICL Israel Chemicals may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Chemical Manufacturing sector.
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. ICL Israel Chemicals needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Chemical Manufacturing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. ICL Israel Chemicals 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, ICL Israel Chemicals 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 ICL Israel Chemicals prominent markets.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for ICL Israel Chemicals in Chemical Manufacturing industry. The Chemical Manufacturing 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of ICL Israel Chemicals
– 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 ICL Israel Chemicals.
Environmental challenges
– ICL Israel Chemicals 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. ICL Israel Chemicals can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Chemical Manufacturing industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– ICL Israel Chemicals has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Chemical Manufacturing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, ICL Israel Chemicals needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Chemical Manufacturing 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of ICL Israel Chemicals Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at ICL Israel Chemicals 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 ICL Israel Chemicals 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 ICL Israel Chemicals 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 ICL Israel Chemicals 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 ICL Israel Chemicals needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.