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 – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, 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 -
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.
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.
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.
Strong track record of project management in the Forestry & Wood Products industry
– Pope Resources A Delaware is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
Ability to lead change in Forestry & Wood Products
– Pope Resources A Delaware is one of the leading players in the Forestry & Wood Products industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Forestry & Wood Products industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Pope Resources A Delaware in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Pope Resources A Delaware is present in almost all the verticals within the Forestry & Wood Products industry. This has provided Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
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.
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.
Organizational Resilience of Pope Resources A Delaware
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Pope Resources A Delaware does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
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.
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 -
Employees’ less understanding of Pope Resources A Delaware strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Pope Resources A Delaware 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 dependence on Pope Resources A Delaware ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Pope Resources A Delaware still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Forestry & Wood Products industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Pope Resources A Delaware has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Pope Resources A Delaware products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Pope Resources A Delaware needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Pope Resources A Delaware has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Forestry & Wood Products industry over the last five years. Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
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.
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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Pope Resources A Delaware needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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.
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 Pope Resources A Delaware supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Pope Resources A Delaware is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Pope Resources A Delaware vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Pope Resources A Delaware, in the dynamic environment of Forestry & Wood Products industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Pope Resources A Delaware has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Pope Resources A Delaware to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Forestry & Wood Products industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Pope Resources A Delaware can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Pope Resources A Delaware 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Pope Resources A Delaware is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Pope Resources A Delaware can utilize new technology in the field of Forestry & Wood Products industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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 Pope Resources A Delaware in the Forestry & Wood Products sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Forestry & Wood Products industry are lowering. It can presents Pope Resources A Delaware with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Forestry & Wood Products sector.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Forestry & Wood Products industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Pope Resources A Delaware can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pope Resources A Delaware 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 Pope Resources A Delaware prominent markets.
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.
