SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for EcoSynthetix Inc (Canada)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , EcoSynthetix Inc is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that EcoSynthetix Inc can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the EcoSynthetix Inc, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which EcoSynthetix Inc 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 EcoSynthetix Inc can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of EcoSynthetix Inc
2. Improving business portfolio management of EcoSynthetix Inc
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Canada
4. Making a Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of EcoSynthetix Inc
Strengths of EcoSynthetix Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of EcoSynthetix Inc are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– EcoSynthetix Inc has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – EcoSynthetix Inc staying ahead in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– EcoSynthetix Inc 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 Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry. The technology infrastructure of Canada 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– EcoSynthetix Inc has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. EcoSynthetix Inc 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– EcoSynthetix Inc has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of EcoSynthetix Inc have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– EcoSynthetix Inc is one of the most innovative firm in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber sector.
Strong track record of project management in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry
– EcoSynthetix Inc is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of EcoSynthetix Inc
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing EcoSynthetix Inc does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber
– EcoSynthetix Inc is one of the leading players in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry in Canada. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry in Canada but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled EcoSynthetix Inc in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- EcoSynthetix Inc 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 EcoSynthetix Inc is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at EcoSynthetix Inc emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that EcoSynthetix Inc 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of EcoSynthetix Inc in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of EcoSynthetix Inc in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. EcoSynthetix Inc has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps EcoSynthetix Inc to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses of EcoSynthetix Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of EcoSynthetix Inc are -
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 EcoSynthetix Inc supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, EcoSynthetix Inc is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left EcoSynthetix Inc vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at EcoSynthetix Inc, in the dynamic environment of Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. EcoSynthetix Inc has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though EcoSynthetix Inc has some of the most successful models in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. EcoSynthetix Inc should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– EcoSynthetix Inc has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As EcoSynthetix Inc is one of the leading players in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry in last five years.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Canada, EcoSynthetix Inc needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on EcoSynthetix Inc ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of EcoSynthetix Inc still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though EcoSynthetix Inc has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of EcoSynthetix Inc products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, EcoSynthetix Inc needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that EcoSynthetix Inc needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at EcoSynthetix Inc can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as EcoSynthetix Inc is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, EcoSynthetix Inc has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry over the last five years. EcoSynthetix Inc 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
EcoSynthetix Inc has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
EcoSynthetix Inc Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of EcoSynthetix Inc are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help EcoSynthetix Inc to increase its market reach. EcoSynthetix Inc 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for EcoSynthetix Inc in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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. EcoSynthetix Inc can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of EcoSynthetix Inc has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry. This can help EcoSynthetix Inc to build a more holistic ecosystem for EcoSynthetix Inc products in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– EcoSynthetix Inc can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. EcoSynthetix Inc can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– EcoSynthetix Inc has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled EcoSynthetix Inc to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help EcoSynthetix Inc 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 Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. EcoSynthetix Inc 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. EcoSynthetix Inc 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.
Loyalty marketing
– EcoSynthetix Inc 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, EcoSynthetix Inc is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. EcoSynthetix Inc can utilize new technology in the field of Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– EcoSynthetix Inc 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for EcoSynthetix Inc 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, EcoSynthetix Inc can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that EcoSynthetix Inc operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber sector.
Threats EcoSynthetix Inc External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of EcoSynthetix Inc are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, EcoSynthetix Inc may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber sector.
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 EcoSynthetix Inc business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– EcoSynthetix Inc 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 Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, EcoSynthetix Inc 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 EcoSynthetix Inc prominent markets.
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 EcoSynthetix Inc.
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.
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. EcoSynthetix Inc 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 Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. EcoSynthetix Inc can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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 EcoSynthetix Inc in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on EcoSynthetix Inc 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 Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry and other sectors.
Regulatory challenges
– EcoSynthetix Inc 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 Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry regulations.
Environmental challenges
– EcoSynthetix Inc 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. EcoSynthetix Inc can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Chemicals - Plastics & Rubber industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of EcoSynthetix Inc Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at EcoSynthetix Inc 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 EcoSynthetix Inc 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 EcoSynthetix Inc 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 EcoSynthetix Inc 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 EcoSynthetix Inc needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.