Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , ParcelPal Technology Inc is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of ParcelPal Technology Inc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that ParcelPal Technology Inc can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the ParcelPal Technology Inc, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which ParcelPal Technology Inc 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 ParcelPal Technology Inc can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of ParcelPal Technology Inc
2. Improving business portfolio management of ParcelPal Technology Inc
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Air Courier sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of ParcelPal Technology Inc
Strengths of ParcelPal Technology Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of ParcelPal Technology Inc are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– ParcelPal Technology Inc has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – ParcelPal Technology Inc staying ahead in the Air Courier industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of ParcelPal Technology Inc in Air Courier industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Air Courier
– ParcelPal Technology Inc is one of the leading players in the Air Courier industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Air Courier industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled ParcelPal Technology Inc in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of ParcelPal Technology Inc comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Air Courier 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.
Learning organization
- ParcelPal Technology Inc 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 ParcelPal Technology Inc is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at ParcelPal Technology Inc emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the ParcelPal Technology Inc 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Air Courier industry
– ParcelPal Technology Inc is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– ParcelPal Technology Inc 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Air Courier industry
– ParcelPal Technology Inc has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled ParcelPal Technology Inc to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Air Courier industry. The sustainable margins have also helped ParcelPal Technology Inc to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of ParcelPal Technology Inc
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing ParcelPal Technology Inc does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– ParcelPal Technology Inc 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 Air Courier 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– ParcelPal Technology Inc is present in almost all the verticals within the Air Courier industry. This has provided ParcelPal Technology Inc 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.
Weaknesses of ParcelPal Technology Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of ParcelPal Technology Inc are -
High dependence on ParcelPal Technology Inc ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of ParcelPal Technology Inc still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Air Courier industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though ParcelPal Technology Inc has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– ParcelPal Technology Inc 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of ParcelPal Technology Inc products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, ParcelPal Technology Inc needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As ParcelPal Technology Inc is one of the leading players in the Air Courier industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Air Courier industry in last five years.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
ParcelPal Technology Inc has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Air Courier industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of ParcelPal Technology Inc is just above the Air Courier 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, ParcelPal Technology Inc 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 Air Courier industry using digital technology.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Air Courier industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, ParcelPal Technology Inc 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 Air Courier industry.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that ParcelPal Technology Inc needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Air Courier industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at ParcelPal Technology Inc can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as ParcelPal Technology Inc is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of ParcelPal Technology Inc is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Air Courier industry, but ParcelPal Technology Inc needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help ParcelPal Technology Inc to focus more on services in the Air Courier industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at ParcelPal Technology Inc, in the dynamic environment of Air Courier industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. ParcelPal Technology Inc has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
ParcelPal Technology Inc Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of ParcelPal Technology Inc are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Air Courier industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. ParcelPal Technology Inc can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Air Courier industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. ParcelPal Technology Inc 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. ParcelPal Technology Inc 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.
Loyalty marketing
– ParcelPal Technology Inc 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for ParcelPal Technology Inc 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 ParcelPal Technology Inc to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, ParcelPal Technology Inc can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that ParcelPal Technology Inc operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Air Courier sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help ParcelPal Technology Inc to increase its market reach. ParcelPal Technology Inc 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– ParcelPal Technology Inc has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Air Courier sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled ParcelPal Technology Inc to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help ParcelPal Technology Inc 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
– ParcelPal Technology Inc can develop new processes and procedures in Air Courier 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of ParcelPal Technology Inc has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Air Courier industry. This can help ParcelPal Technology Inc to build a more holistic ecosystem for ParcelPal Technology Inc products in the Air Courier industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Air Courier industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for ParcelPal Technology Inc in the Air Courier industry. Now ParcelPal Technology Inc can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– ParcelPal Technology Inc 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.
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. ParcelPal Technology Inc can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– ParcelPal Technology Inc can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Air Courier 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.
Threats ParcelPal Technology Inc External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of ParcelPal Technology Inc are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Air Courier industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. ParcelPal Technology Inc can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 ParcelPal Technology Inc in the Air Courier sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Environmental challenges
– ParcelPal Technology Inc 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. ParcelPal Technology Inc can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Air Courier industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Air Courier industry are lowering. It can presents ParcelPal Technology Inc with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Air Courier sector.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of ParcelPal Technology Inc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, ParcelPal Technology Inc may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Air Courier sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– ParcelPal Technology Inc 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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, ParcelPal Technology Inc 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 ParcelPal Technology Inc prominent markets.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– ParcelPal Technology Inc 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 Air Courier industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for ParcelPal Technology Inc in Air Courier industry. The Air Courier 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. ParcelPal Technology Inc needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Air Courier industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of ParcelPal Technology Inc Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at ParcelPal Technology Inc 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 ParcelPal Technology Inc 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 ParcelPal Technology Inc 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 ParcelPal Technology Inc 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 ParcelPal Technology Inc needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.