Pope Resources A Delaware (POPE) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Forestry & Wood Products
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Pope Resources A Delaware (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Pope Resources A Delaware is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Pope Resources A Delaware
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Pope Resources A Delaware can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pope Resources A Delaware, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Pope Resources A Delaware can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Pope Resources A Delaware
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pope Resources A Delaware
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Forestry & Wood Products sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Pope Resources A Delaware
Strengths of Pope Resources A Delaware | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pope Resources A Delaware are -
Training and development
– Pope Resources A Delaware has one of the best training and development program in Basic Materials 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.
Digital Transformation in Forestry & Wood Products industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Pope Resources A Delaware digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Pope Resources A Delaware is one of the most innovative firm in Forestry & Wood Products sector.
Analytics focus
– Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Forestry & Wood Products 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Pope Resources A Delaware has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Pope Resources A Delaware in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. Pope Resources A Delaware has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Pope Resources A Delaware to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Forestry & Wood Products industry
– Pope Resources A Delaware has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Pope Resources A Delaware to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Forestry & Wood Products industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Pope Resources A Delaware to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Pope Resources A Delaware is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Pope Resources A Delaware emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Pope Resources A Delaware has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Pope Resources A Delaware staying ahead in the Forestry & Wood Products industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Pope Resources A Delaware has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Forestry & Wood Products industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Pope Resources A Delaware have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Pope Resources A Delaware in Forestry & Wood Products industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses of Pope Resources A Delaware | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Pope Resources A Delaware are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Pope Resources A Delaware has high operating costs in the Forestry & Wood Products industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Pope Resources A Delaware lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Pope Resources A Delaware is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Forestry & Wood Products industry, but Pope Resources A Delaware needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Pope Resources A Delaware to focus more on services in the Forestry & Wood Products industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Forestry & Wood Products industry, Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Pope Resources A Delaware, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Forestry & Wood Products 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Pope Resources A Delaware has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Forestry & Wood Products industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Skills based hiring in Forestry & Wood Products industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Forestry & Wood Products industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Forestry & Wood Products industry.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Pope Resources A Delaware is just above the Forestry & Wood Products 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Pope Resources A Delaware is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Pope Resources A Delaware to provide better information regarding Forestry & Wood Products products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Pope Resources A Delaware needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Forestry & Wood Products industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Pope Resources A Delaware can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Pope Resources A Delaware is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
Pope Resources A Delaware Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Pope Resources A Delaware are -
Buying journey improvements
– Pope Resources A Delaware can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Forestry & Wood Products 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Pope Resources A Delaware can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pope Resources A Delaware operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Forestry & Wood Products sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Pope Resources A Delaware can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Pope Resources A Delaware has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Forestry & Wood Products sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Pope Resources A Delaware to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Pope Resources A Delaware to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Pope Resources A Delaware to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Pope Resources A Delaware can develop new processes and procedures in Forestry & Wood Products 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.
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. Pope Resources A Delaware can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Forestry & Wood Products industry.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Pope Resources A Delaware has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Forestry & Wood Products industry. This can help Pope Resources A Delaware to build a more holistic ecosystem for Pope Resources A Delaware products in the Forestry & Wood Products industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Pope Resources A Delaware to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Pope Resources A Delaware can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Forestry & Wood Products sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
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 Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
Threats Pope Resources A Delaware External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Pope Resources A Delaware are -
Environmental challenges
– Pope Resources A Delaware 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. Pope Resources A Delaware can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Forestry & Wood Products industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pope Resources A Delaware has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Forestry & Wood Products industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pope Resources A Delaware needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Forestry & Wood Products 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.
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. Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
Increasing wage structure of Pope Resources A Delaware
– 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 Pope Resources A Delaware.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Forestry & Wood Products industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Forestry & Wood Products industry regulations.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Pope Resources A Delaware in Forestry & Wood Products industry. The Forestry & Wood Products 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
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 Pope Resources A Delaware business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Pope Resources A Delaware.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Pope Resources A Delaware is facing in Forestry & Wood Products sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Forestry & Wood Products industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Pope Resources A Delaware may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Forestry & Wood Products sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Pope Resources A Delaware Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Pope Resources A Delaware needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.