Mountain Province Diamonds (MPVD) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Non-Metallic Mining
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Mountain Province Diamonds (Canada)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Mountain Province Diamonds is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Mountain Province Diamonds
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Mountain Province Diamonds can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mountain Province Diamonds, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Mountain Province Diamonds can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Mountain Province Diamonds
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mountain Province Diamonds
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Canada
4. Making a Non-Metallic Mining sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Mountain Province Diamonds
Strengths of Mountain Province Diamonds | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mountain Province Diamonds are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Mountain Province Diamonds are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Mountain Province Diamonds
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Mountain Province Diamonds does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Mountain Province Diamonds has one of the best training and development program in Basic Materials industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Non-Metallic Mining industry
– Mountain Province Diamonds has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mountain Province Diamonds to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Non-Metallic Mining industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mountain Province Diamonds to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Mountain Province Diamonds has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Mountain Province Diamonds staying ahead in the Non-Metallic Mining industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Non-Metallic Mining
– Mountain Province Diamonds is one of the leading players in the Non-Metallic Mining industry in Canada. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Non-Metallic Mining industry in Canada but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Mountain Province Diamonds in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Mountain Province Diamonds 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mountain Province Diamonds is present in almost all the verticals within the Non-Metallic Mining industry. This has provided Mountain Province Diamonds 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mountain Province Diamonds has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Non-Metallic Mining industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Mountain Province Diamonds have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mountain Province Diamonds has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Mountain Province Diamonds in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. Mountain Province Diamonds has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mountain Province Diamonds to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Non-Metallic Mining industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Mountain Province Diamonds digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Mountain Province Diamonds 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.
Weaknesses of Mountain Province Diamonds | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Mountain Province Diamonds are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Mountain Province Diamonds has high operating costs in the Non-Metallic Mining industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Mountain Province Diamonds lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Mountain Province Diamonds is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Mountain Province Diamonds to provide better information regarding Non-Metallic Mining products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Non-Metallic Mining industry using digital technology.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Mountain Province Diamonds needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Non-Metallic Mining industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Mountain Province Diamonds can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mountain Province Diamonds is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Mountain Province Diamonds supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Mountain Province Diamonds is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Mountain Province Diamonds vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on Mountain Province Diamonds ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Mountain Province Diamonds still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Non-Metallic Mining industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Mountain Province Diamonds has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Mountain Province Diamonds products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mountain Province Diamonds needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Mountain Province Diamonds, in the dynamic environment of Non-Metallic Mining industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Mountain Province Diamonds has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Mountain Province Diamonds 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mountain Province Diamonds is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Non-Metallic Mining industry, but Mountain Province Diamonds needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mountain Province Diamonds to focus more on services in the Non-Metallic Mining industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Canada, Mountain Province Diamonds needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Mountain Province Diamonds Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Mountain Province Diamonds are -
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 Mountain Province Diamonds 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Mountain Province Diamonds can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Non-Metallic Mining 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Mountain Province Diamonds 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Mountain Province Diamonds can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Non-Metallic Mining industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Mountain Province Diamonds in the Non-Metallic Mining industry. Now Mountain Province Diamonds can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Mountain Province Diamonds has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Non-Metallic Mining sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Mountain Province Diamonds to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Mountain Province Diamonds 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mountain Province Diamonds can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mountain Province Diamonds operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Non-Metallic Mining sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Mountain Province Diamonds can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Non-Metallic Mining 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Mountain Province Diamonds can develop new processes and procedures in Non-Metallic Mining 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 Non-Metallic Mining industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Mountain Province Diamonds can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Mountain Province Diamonds to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Non-Metallic Mining industry.
Threats Mountain Province Diamonds External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Mountain Province Diamonds are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Non-Metallic Mining industry and other sectors.
Environmental challenges
– Mountain Province Diamonds 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. Mountain Province Diamonds can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Non-Metallic Mining industry.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Mountain Province Diamonds.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Mountain Province Diamonds has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Non-Metallic Mining industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mountain Province Diamonds needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Non-Metallic Mining 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Non-Metallic Mining industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Mountain Province Diamonds in the Non-Metallic Mining sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Mountain Province Diamonds business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mountain Province Diamonds is facing in Non-Metallic Mining sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mountain Province Diamonds in Non-Metallic Mining industry. The Non-Metallic Mining 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Non-Metallic Mining industry are lowering. It can presents Mountain Province Diamonds with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Non-Metallic Mining sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Mountain Province Diamonds 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. Mountain Province Diamonds 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Non-Metallic Mining industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Mountain Province Diamonds Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Mountain Province Diamonds 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 Mountain Province Diamonds needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
