Skyline (SKY) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Mobile Homes & RVs
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Skyline (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Skyline is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing,
increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Skyline can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Skyline, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Skyline 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 Skyline can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Skyline
2. Improving business portfolio management of Skyline
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Mobile Homes & RVs sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Skyline
Strengths of Skyline | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Skyline are -
Strong track record of project management in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry
– Skyline is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Mobile Homes & RVs
– Skyline is one of the leading players in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Skyline in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Skyline has one of the best training and development program in Capital Goods 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.
Analytics focus
– Skyline 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 Mobile Homes & RVs 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Skyline 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Skyline is one of the most innovative firm in Mobile Homes & RVs sector.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Skyline in the Capital Goods sector have low bargaining power. Skyline has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Skyline to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Skyline is one of the leading players in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry in United States. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in United States. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Skyline has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Mobile Homes & RVs industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Skyline have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Skyline
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Skyline does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Skyline has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Skyline staying ahead in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Skyline has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Skyline 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.
Weaknesses of Skyline | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Skyline are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry, Skyline 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Skyline 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Skyline is one of the leading players in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry in last five years.
High dependence on Skyline ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Skyline still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Mobile Homes & RVs industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Skyline has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Skyline has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry over the last five years. Skyline 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 bargaining power of channel partners in Mobile Homes & RVs industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in United States, Skyline 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 Mobile Homes & RVs industry.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Skyline needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Skyline needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Skyline can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Skyline is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Skyline products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Skyline needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ less understanding of Skyline strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Skyline 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Skyline 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 Mobile Homes & RVs industry using digital technology.
Skyline Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Skyline are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Skyline 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. Skyline can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Skyline to increase its market reach. Skyline 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Skyline has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Mobile Homes & RVs industry. This can help Skyline to build a more holistic ecosystem for Skyline products in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Skyline 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 Mobile Homes & RVs industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Skyline 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. Skyline 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Skyline in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Skyline 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 Skyline to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Skyline 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Mobile Homes & RVs industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Skyline in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry. Now Skyline can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Skyline 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Skyline 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 Skyline to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Skyline 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 Skyline External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Skyline are -
Increasing wage structure of Skyline
– 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 Skyline.
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 Skyline.
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.
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 Skyline in the Mobile Homes & RVs sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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, Skyline may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Mobile Homes & RVs sector.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Mobile Homes & RVs industry are lowering. It can presents Skyline with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Mobile Homes & RVs sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Skyline 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 Mobile Homes & RVs industry and other sectors.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Skyline in Mobile Homes & RVs industry. The Mobile Homes & RVs 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Skyline 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 Mobile Homes & RVs industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Skyline has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Skyline needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Mobile Homes & RVs 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.
Environmental challenges
– Skyline 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. Skyline can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry.
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. Skyline 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Skyline Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Skyline 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 Skyline 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 Skyline 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 Skyline 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 Skyline needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
