Kimberly-Clark de Mexico (KCDMY) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Kimberly-Clark de Mexico (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Kimberly-Clark de Mexico is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Kimberly-Clark de Mexico can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kimberly-Clark de Mexico, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico
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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico
Strengths of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico are -
Training and development
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico has one of the best training and development program in 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in industry
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Kimberly-Clark de Mexico to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Kimberly-Clark de Mexico to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Kimberly-Clark de Mexico staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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.
Learning organization
- Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Kimberly-Clark de Mexico emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Kimberly-Clark de Mexico digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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.
High brand equity
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Kimberly-Clark de Mexico to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico is one of the leading players in the 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.
Weaknesses of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Kimberly-Clark de Mexico is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Kimberly-Clark de Mexico to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Kimberly-Clark de Mexico is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Kimberly-Clark de Mexico vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Kimberly-Clark de Mexico needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Kimberly-Clark de Mexico can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Kimberly-Clark de Mexico is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Kimberly-Clark de Mexico needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Kimberly-Clark de Mexico has some of the most successful models in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico, 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the industry, Kimberly-Clark de Mexico needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Lack of clear differentiation of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Kimberly-Clark de Mexico needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring in industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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.
Kimberly-Clark de Mexico Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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, Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Kimberly-Clark de Mexico in the industry. Now Kimberly-Clark de Mexico can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Kimberly-Clark de Mexico to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in industry. This can help Kimberly-Clark de Mexico to build a more holistic ecosystem for Kimberly-Clark de Mexico products in the industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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.
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. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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.
Threats Kimberly-Clark de Mexico External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico in the 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico needs to understand the core reasons impacting the industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Kimberly-Clark de Mexico in industry. The 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Kimberly-Clark de Mexico is facing in sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to industry are lowering. It can presents Kimberly-Clark de Mexico with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico
– 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Kimberly-Clark de Mexico may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico 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 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.