SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Lattice Incorporated (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Lattice Incorporated is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Lattice Incorporated
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Lattice Incorporated can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lattice Incorporated, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lattice Incorporated 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 Lattice Incorporated can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Lattice Incorporated
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lattice Incorporated
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Communications Equipment sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Lattice Incorporated
Strengths of Lattice Incorporated | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Lattice Incorporated are -
Organizational Resilience of Lattice Incorporated
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Lattice Incorporated does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Communications Equipment industry
– Lattice Incorporated has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Lattice Incorporated to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Communications Equipment industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Lattice Incorporated to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Lattice Incorporated is present in almost all the verticals within the Communications Equipment industry. This has provided Lattice Incorporated 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.
Analytics focus
– Lattice Incorporated 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 Communications Equipment 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Lattice Incorporated 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.
High brand equity
– Lattice Incorporated has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Lattice Incorporated to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Lattice Incorporated has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Communications Equipment industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Lattice Incorporated have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Communications Equipment
– Lattice Incorporated is one of the leading players in the Communications Equipment industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Communications Equipment industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Lattice Incorporated in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Lattice Incorporated has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Lattice Incorporated 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Lattice Incorporated in Communications Equipment industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Lattice Incorporated is one of the leading players in the Communications Equipment 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Lattice Incorporated in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. Lattice Incorporated has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Lattice Incorporated to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses of Lattice Incorporated | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Lattice Incorporated are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Lattice Incorporated 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 Lattice Incorporated is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Communications Equipment industry, but Lattice Incorporated needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Lattice Incorporated to focus more on services in the Communications Equipment industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Lattice Incorporated is one of the leading players in the Communications Equipment industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Communications Equipment industry in last five years.
Employees’ less understanding of Lattice Incorporated strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Lattice Incorporated 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Lattice Incorporated is just above the Communications Equipment 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Lattice Incorporated needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Lattice Incorporated has high operating costs in the Communications Equipment industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Lattice Incorporated lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Lattice Incorporated, in the dynamic environment of Communications Equipment industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Lattice Incorporated has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Communications Equipment industry, Lattice Incorporated 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Lattice Incorporated has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Communications Equipment industry over the last five years. Lattice Incorporated 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.
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 Lattice Incorporated supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Lattice Incorporated is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Lattice Incorporated vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lattice Incorporated Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Lattice Incorporated are -
Loyalty marketing
– Lattice Incorporated 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 Lattice Incorporated 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 Lattice Incorporated 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 Communications Equipment industry.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Communications Equipment industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Lattice Incorporated 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 Lattice Incorporated 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 Lattice Incorporated to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Lattice Incorporated has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Communications Equipment industry. This can help Lattice Incorporated to build a more holistic ecosystem for Lattice Incorporated products in the Communications Equipment industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Lattice Incorporated 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Lattice Incorporated can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Communications Equipment 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.
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 Lattice Incorporated 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Lattice Incorporated in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Communications Equipment industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Lattice Incorporated has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Communications Equipment sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Lattice Incorporated to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Lattice Incorporated to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Communications Equipment industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Lattice Incorporated in the Communications Equipment industry. Now Lattice Incorporated can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Lattice Incorporated can develop new processes and procedures in Communications Equipment 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.
Threats Lattice Incorporated External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Lattice Incorporated are -
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Lattice Incorporated has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Communications Equipment industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Lattice Incorporated needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Communications Equipment 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.
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 Lattice Incorporated business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Communications Equipment industry are lowering. It can presents Lattice Incorporated with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Communications Equipment sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Lattice Incorporated 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 Communications Equipment industry regulations.
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. Lattice Incorporated needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Communications Equipment industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Lattice Incorporated in the Communications Equipment sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Lattice Incorporated 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. Lattice Incorporated can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communications Equipment industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Lattice Incorporated may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communications Equipment sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Lattice Incorporated is facing in Communications Equipment sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Lattice Incorporated can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the Communications Equipment industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Lattice Incorporated high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Lattice Incorporated Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Lattice Incorporated 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 Lattice Incorporated 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 Lattice Incorporated 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 Lattice Incorporated 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 Lattice Incorporated needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.