Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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 Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium
Strengths of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium is one of the most innovative firm in sector.
Learning organization
- Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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 Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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.
Analytics focus
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium is one of the leading players in the 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.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium is one of the leading players in the industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium are -
Employees’ less understanding of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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 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 Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring in industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium is just above the 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, Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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 industry using digital technology.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium, in the dynamic environment of industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium has some of the most successful models in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in industry. This can help Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium to build a more holistic ecosystem for Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium products in the industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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.
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. Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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 Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium in the industry. Now Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium can utilize new technology in the field of industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the industry.
Buying journey improvements
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium can improve the customer journey of consumers in the 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of sector.
Environmental challenges
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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. Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium is facing in sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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 industry.
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 Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium.
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. Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium needs to understand the core reasons impacting the industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to industry are lowering. It can presents Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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 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 Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium in industry. The 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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 Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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 Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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 Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium 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 Sprott Physical Platinum Palladium needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.