Mercury (MRCY) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Computer Peripherals
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Mercury (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Mercury is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Mercury can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mercury, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mercury 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 Mercury can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Mercury
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mercury
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Computer Peripherals sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Mercury
Strengths of Mercury | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mercury are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mercury in the Technology sector have low bargaining power. Mercury has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mercury to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Computer Peripherals
– Mercury is one of the leading players in the Computer Peripherals industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Computer Peripherals industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Mercury in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Computer Peripherals industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Mercury digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Mercury 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mercury is present in almost all the verticals within the Computer Peripherals industry. This has provided Mercury 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Computer Peripherals industry
– Mercury has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mercury to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Computer Peripherals industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mercury to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Mercury
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Mercury does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Mercury in Computer Peripherals industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Mercury 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mercury has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mercury 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.
Training and development
– Mercury has one of the best training and development program in Technology 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.
Learning organization
- Mercury 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 Mercury is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Mercury emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Mercury is one of the leading players in the Computer Peripherals 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 Mercury | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Mercury are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Computer Peripherals industry, Mercury 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 Mercury products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mercury needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mercury 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 Computer Peripherals industry using digital technology.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mercury is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Computer Peripherals industry, but Mercury needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mercury to focus more on services in the Computer Peripherals industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring in Computer Peripherals industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Mercury 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Mercury is just above the Computer Peripherals 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Mercury 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Mercury needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Mercury is one of the leading players in the Computer Peripherals industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Computer Peripherals industry in last five years.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Mercury, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Computer Peripherals 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.
High dependence on Mercury ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Mercury still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Computer Peripherals industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Mercury has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Mercury Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Mercury are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Computer Peripherals industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Mercury 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
– Mercury has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Computer Peripherals sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Mercury to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mercury to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Mercury can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Mercury 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Mercury 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mercury 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mercury can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mercury operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Computer Peripherals sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Mercury has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Computer Peripherals industry. This can help Mercury to build a more holistic ecosystem for Mercury products in the Computer Peripherals industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Mercury is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Mercury can utilize new technology in the field of Computer Peripherals industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Mercury can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Computer Peripherals 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Computer Peripherals industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Mercury in the Computer Peripherals industry. Now Mercury can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Mercury can develop new processes and procedures in Computer Peripherals 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mercury 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 Computer Peripherals industry.
Threats Mercury External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Mercury are -
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. Mercury 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mercury 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 Computer Peripherals industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Mercury 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 Computer Peripherals 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. Mercury needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Computer Peripherals industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Mercury has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Computer Peripherals industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mercury needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Computer Peripherals 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mercury 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 Mercury prominent markets.
Increasing wage structure of Mercury
– 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 Mercury.
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 Mercury in the Computer Peripherals sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mercury is facing in Computer Peripherals sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Mercury may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Computer Peripherals sector.
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 Mercury.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Mercury Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Mercury 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 Mercury 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 Mercury 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 Mercury 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 Mercury needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
