Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Navios Maritime Midstream Partners is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Navios Maritime Midstream Partners can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Navios Maritime Midstream Partners, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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 Navios Maritime Midstream Partners can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners
2. Improving business portfolio management of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Water Transportation sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners
Strengths of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Water Transportation industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
Analytics focus
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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 Water Transportation 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.
Digital Transformation in Water Transportation industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Navios Maritime Midstream Partners digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners is present in almost all the verticals within the Water Transportation industry. This has provided Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
Training and development
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners has one of the best training and development program in Transportation 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
Organizational Resilience of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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 Water Transportation industry
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Navios Maritime Midstream Partners to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Water Transportation industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Navios Maritime Midstream Partners to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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 Navios Maritime Midstream Partners in Water Transportation industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Navios Maritime Midstream Partners to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners are -
Need for greater diversity
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Navios Maritime Midstream Partners needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Navios Maritime Midstream Partners supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Navios Maritime Midstream Partners is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Navios Maritime Midstream Partners vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Navios Maritime Midstream Partners has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Water Transportation industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Navios Maritime Midstream Partners has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Water Transportation industry over the last five years. Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners is just above the Water Transportation 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Water Transportation industry, Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Water Transportation industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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 Water Transportation industry.
Skills based hiring in Water Transportation industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Navios Maritime Midstream Partners is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Navios Maritime Midstream Partners to provide better information regarding Water Transportation products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on Navios Maritime Midstream Partners ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Water Transportation industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Navios Maritime Midstream Partners has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Navios Maritime Midstream Partners Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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 Navios Maritime Midstream Partners to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Water Transportation sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Navios Maritime Midstream Partners to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Navios Maritime Midstream Partners to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners can develop new processes and procedures in Water Transportation 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.
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 Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Navios Maritime Midstream Partners can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Navios Maritime Midstream Partners to increase its market reach. Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Navios Maritime Midstream Partners can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Navios Maritime Midstream Partners operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Water Transportation sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Water Transportation industry. This can help Navios Maritime Midstream Partners to build a more holistic ecosystem for Navios Maritime Midstream Partners products in the Water Transportation industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Navios Maritime Midstream Partners can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Water Transportation industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Navios Maritime Midstream Partners in the Water Transportation industry. Now Navios Maritime Midstream Partners can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
Threats Navios Maritime Midstream Partners External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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. Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Navios Maritime Midstream Partners may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Water Transportation sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Water Transportation industry are lowering. It can presents Navios Maritime Midstream Partners with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Water Transportation sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Navios Maritime Midstream Partners is facing in Water Transportation sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Water Transportation industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Navios Maritime Midstream Partners needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Water Transportation 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Navios Maritime Midstream Partners in Water Transportation industry. The Water Transportation 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.
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. Navios Maritime Midstream Partners needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Water Transportation industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners
– 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 Navios Maritime Midstream Partners.
Regulatory challenges
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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 Water Transportation industry regulations.
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 Navios Maritime Midstream Partners in the Water Transportation sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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. Navios Maritime Midstream Partners can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Water Transportation industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Navios Maritime Midstream Partners Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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 Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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 Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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 Navios Maritime Midstream Partners 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 Navios Maritime Midstream Partners needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
