Stratex Oil & Gas (STTX) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Business Services
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Stratex Oil & Gas (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Stratex Oil & Gas is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Stratex Oil & Gas
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Stratex Oil & Gas can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Stratex Oil & Gas, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Stratex Oil & Gas can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Stratex Oil & Gas
2. Improving business portfolio management of Stratex Oil & Gas
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Business Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Stratex Oil & Gas
Strengths of Stratex Oil & Gas | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Stratex Oil & Gas are -
Learning organization
- Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Stratex Oil & Gas is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Stratex Oil & Gas emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Stratex Oil & Gas has one of the best training and development program in Services 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Stratex Oil & Gas has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Business Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Stratex Oil & Gas have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Business Services
– Stratex Oil & Gas is one of the leading players in the Business Services industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Business Services industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Stratex Oil & Gas in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Stratex Oil & Gas is one of the leading players in the Business Services 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Stratex Oil & Gas in Business Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Stratex Oil & Gas is present in almost all the verticals within the Business Services industry. This has provided Stratex Oil & Gas 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Business Services industry
– Stratex Oil & Gas has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Stratex Oil & Gas to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Business Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Stratex Oil & Gas to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Stratex Oil & Gas
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Stratex Oil & Gas does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Stratex Oil & Gas comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Business Services 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Stratex Oil & Gas has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Digital Transformation in Business Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Stratex Oil & Gas digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Stratex Oil & Gas 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.
Weaknesses of Stratex Oil & Gas | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Stratex Oil & Gas are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Stratex Oil & Gas has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Business Services industry over the last five years. Stratex Oil & Gas 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Stratex Oil & Gas products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Stratex Oil & Gas needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Stratex Oil & Gas 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Stratex Oil & Gas has high operating costs in the Business Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Stratex Oil & Gas lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Business Services industry using digital technology.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Stratex Oil & Gas has some of the most successful models in the Business Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Stratex Oil & Gas should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on Stratex Oil & Gas ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Stratex Oil & Gas still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Business Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Stratex Oil & Gas has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Stratex Oil & Gas is one of the leading players in the Business Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Business Services industry in last five years.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Stratex Oil & Gas is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Business Services industry, but Stratex Oil & Gas needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Stratex Oil & Gas to focus more on services in the Business Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Business Services industry, Stratex Oil & Gas 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.
Stratex Oil & Gas Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Stratex Oil & Gas are -
Buying journey improvements
– Stratex Oil & Gas can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Business Services 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, Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Stratex Oil & Gas to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Stratex Oil & Gas can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Stratex Oil & Gas operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Business Services sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Stratex Oil & Gas is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Stratex Oil & Gas can utilize new technology in the field of Business Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Stratex Oil & Gas 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
– Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Stratex Oil & Gas to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Stratex Oil & Gas 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Stratex Oil & Gas 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Stratex Oil & Gas has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Business Services sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Stratex Oil & Gas to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Stratex Oil & Gas to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Business Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Stratex Oil & Gas 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. Stratex Oil & Gas 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Business Services industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Stratex Oil & Gas can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Business Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Stratex Oil & Gas in the Business Services industry. Now Stratex Oil & Gas can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Stratex Oil & Gas External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Stratex Oil & Gas are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Stratex Oil & Gas is facing in Business Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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.
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 Stratex Oil & Gas.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Stratex Oil & Gas may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Business Services sector.
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. Stratex Oil & Gas needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Business Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Business Services industry and other sectors.
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 Stratex Oil & Gas in the Business Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Business Services industry.
Environmental challenges
– Stratex Oil & Gas 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. Stratex Oil & Gas can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Business Services industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Stratex Oil & Gas has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Business Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Stratex Oil & Gas needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Business Services 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.
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. Stratex Oil & Gas 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Business Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Stratex Oil & Gas can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Stratex Oil & Gas Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Stratex Oil & Gas 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 Stratex Oil & Gas needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.