Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS
Strengths of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in industry
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS is one of the most innovative firm in sector.
Training and development
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS has one of the best training and development program in industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS in the sector have low bargaining power. Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS is one of the leading players in the industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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 industry using digital technology.
Employees’ less understanding of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS has high operating costs in the industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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.
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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the industry, but Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS to focus more on services in the industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the industry, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS, in the dynamic environment of industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the industry.
Loyalty marketing
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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. Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS can develop new processes and procedures in industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS can improve the customer journey of consumers in the 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in industry. This can help Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS to build a more holistic ecosystem for Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS products in the industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS are -
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. Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS needs to understand the core reasons impacting the 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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS in the sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS in industry. The industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of sector.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to industry are lowering. It can presents Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS
– 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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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 industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS prominent markets.
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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS 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 Pitney Bowes Inc Pb ELKS needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.