New Millennium Iron (NML) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for New Millennium Iron (Canada)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , New Millennium Iron is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of New Millennium Iron

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that New Millennium Iron can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the New Millennium Iron, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which New Millennium Iron 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of New Millennium Iron can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of New Millennium Iron
2. Improving business portfolio management of New Millennium Iron
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Canada
4. Making a Metal Mining sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of New Millennium Iron

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Strengths of New Millennium Iron | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of New Millennium Iron are -

Ability to lead change in Metal Mining

– New Millennium Iron is one of the leading players in the Metal Mining industry in Canada. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Metal Mining industry in Canada but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled New Millennium Iron in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

High brand equity

– New Millennium Iron has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled New Millennium Iron to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Training and development

– New Millennium Iron 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.

Innovation driven organization

– New Millennium Iron is one of the most innovative firm in Metal Mining sector.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of New Millennium Iron in Metal Mining industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Metal Mining industry

– New Millennium Iron has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled New Millennium Iron to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Metal Mining industry. The sustainable margins have also helped New Millennium Iron to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of New Millennium Iron in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. New Millennium Iron has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps New Millennium Iron to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Digital Transformation in Metal Mining industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For New Millennium Iron digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. New Millennium Iron 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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– New Millennium Iron is one of the leading players in the Metal Mining industry in Canada. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Canada. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the New Millennium Iron 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.

Learning organization

- New Millennium Iron 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 New Millennium Iron is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at New Millennium Iron emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Strong track record of project management in the Metal Mining industry

– New Millennium Iron is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

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Weaknesses of New Millennium Iron | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of New Millennium Iron are -

Lack of clear differentiation of New Millennium Iron products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, New Millennium Iron needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at New Millennium Iron, in the dynamic environment of Metal Mining industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. New Millennium Iron has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, New Millennium Iron is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help New Millennium Iron to provide better information regarding Metal Mining products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of New Millennium Iron is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Metal Mining industry, but New Millennium Iron needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help New Millennium Iron to focus more on services in the Metal Mining industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Products dominated business model

– Even though New Millennium Iron has some of the most successful models in the Metal Mining industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. New Millennium Iron should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

New Millennium Iron has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Metal Mining industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, New Millennium Iron 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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that New Millennium Iron needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Metal Mining industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at New Millennium Iron can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as New Millennium Iron is planning to shift buying processes online.

Need for greater diversity

– New Millennium Iron 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.

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 New Millennium Iron supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, New Millennium Iron is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left New Millennium Iron vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, New Millennium Iron has high operating costs in the Metal Mining industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract New Millennium Iron lucrative customers.

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New Millennium Iron Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of New Millennium Iron are -

Leveraging digital technologies

– New Millennium Iron 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– New Millennium Iron has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Metal Mining sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled New Millennium Iron to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help New Millennium Iron to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for New Millennium Iron 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.

Loyalty marketing

– New Millennium Iron 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of New Millennium Iron has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Metal Mining industry. This can help New Millennium Iron to build a more holistic ecosystem for New Millennium Iron products in the Metal Mining industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, New Millennium Iron is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. New Millennium Iron can utilize new technology in the field of Metal Mining industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects New Millennium Iron can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Manufacturing automation

– New Millennium Iron can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Metal Mining 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.

Buying journey improvements

– New Millennium Iron can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Metal Mining 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, New Millennium Iron 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 New Millennium Iron to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for New Millennium Iron 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 New Millennium Iron to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Metal Mining industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. New Millennium Iron can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

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. New Millennium Iron can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

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Threats New Millennium Iron External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of New Millennium Iron are -

Consumer confidence and its impact on New Millennium Iron 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 Metal Mining industry and other sectors.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, New Millennium Iron may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Metal Mining sector.

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, New Millennium Iron 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 New Millennium Iron prominent markets.

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. New Millennium Iron 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.

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. New Millennium Iron needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Metal Mining industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– New Millennium Iron 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 New Millennium Iron business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Increasing wage structure of New Millennium Iron

– 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 New Millennium Iron.

Environmental challenges

– New Millennium Iron 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. New Millennium Iron can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Metal Mining industry.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for New Millennium Iron in Metal Mining industry. The Metal Mining 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.

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 Metal Mining industry are lowering. It can presents New Millennium Iron with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Metal Mining sector.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of New Millennium Iron Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at New Millennium Iron 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 New Millennium Iron 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 New Millennium Iron 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 New Millennium Iron 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 New Millennium Iron needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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