SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for U-Swirl Inc (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , U-Swirl Inc is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
wage bills are increasing, 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 U-Swirl Inc can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the U-Swirl Inc, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which U-Swirl Inc operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of U-Swirl Inc can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of U-Swirl Inc
2. Improving business portfolio management of U-Swirl Inc
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Restaurants sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of U-Swirl Inc
Strengths of U-Swirl Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of U-Swirl Inc are -
Training and development
– U-Swirl Inc 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of U-Swirl Inc in Restaurants industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– U-Swirl Inc is present in almost all the verticals within the Restaurants industry. This has provided U-Swirl Inc a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Organizational Resilience of U-Swirl Inc
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing U-Swirl Inc does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management in the Restaurants industry
– U-Swirl Inc is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the U-Swirl Inc are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
High brand equity
– U-Swirl Inc has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled U-Swirl Inc to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Restaurants industry
– U-Swirl Inc has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled U-Swirl Inc to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Restaurants industry. The sustainable margins have also helped U-Swirl Inc to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Restaurants
– U-Swirl Inc is one of the leading players in the Restaurants industry in United States. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Restaurants industry in United States but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled U-Swirl Inc in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of U-Swirl Inc in the Services sector have low bargaining power. U-Swirl Inc has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps U-Swirl Inc to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of U-Swirl Inc comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Restaurants 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– U-Swirl Inc has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Restaurants industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of U-Swirl Inc have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of U-Swirl Inc | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of U-Swirl Inc are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of U-Swirl Inc is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Restaurants industry, but U-Swirl Inc needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help U-Swirl Inc to focus more on services in the Restaurants industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of U-Swirl Inc, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Restaurants industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, U-Swirl Inc is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help U-Swirl Inc to provide better information regarding Restaurants products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
U-Swirl Inc has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Restaurants industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Products dominated business model
– Even though U-Swirl Inc has some of the most successful models in the Restaurants industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. U-Swirl Inc should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on U-Swirl Inc ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of U-Swirl Inc still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Restaurants industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though U-Swirl Inc has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at U-Swirl Inc, in the dynamic environment of Restaurants industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. U-Swirl Inc has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, U-Swirl Inc has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Restaurants industry over the last five years. U-Swirl Inc 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, U-Swirl Inc has high operating costs in the Restaurants industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract U-Swirl Inc lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, U-Swirl Inc has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the Restaurants industry using digital technology.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that U-Swirl Inc needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Restaurants industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at U-Swirl Inc can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as U-Swirl Inc is planning to shift buying processes online.
U-Swirl Inc Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of U-Swirl Inc are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for U-Swirl Inc to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for U-Swirl Inc to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Restaurants industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for U-Swirl Inc in the Restaurants industry. Now U-Swirl Inc can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– U-Swirl Inc has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, U-Swirl Inc can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that U-Swirl Inc operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Restaurants sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– U-Swirl Inc can develop new processes and procedures in Restaurants industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, U-Swirl Inc 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 U-Swirl Inc to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– U-Swirl Inc can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for U-Swirl Inc 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, U-Swirl Inc 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. U-Swirl Inc can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 U-Swirl Inc 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at U-Swirl Inc 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 Restaurants industry.
Buying journey improvements
– U-Swirl Inc can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Restaurants industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Threats U-Swirl Inc External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of U-Swirl Inc are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that U-Swirl Inc is facing in Restaurants sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Restaurants industry are lowering. It can presents U-Swirl Inc with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Restaurants sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for U-Swirl Inc in Restaurants industry. The Restaurants 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– U-Swirl Inc has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Restaurants industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, U-Swirl Inc needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Restaurants 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, U-Swirl Inc can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate U-Swirl Inc prominent markets.
Environmental challenges
– U-Swirl Inc needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. U-Swirl Inc can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Restaurants industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Restaurants industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. U-Swirl Inc can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 U-Swirl Inc business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 U-Swirl Inc in the Restaurants sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. U-Swirl Inc needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Restaurants industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of U-Swirl Inc
– 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 U-Swirl Inc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, U-Swirl Inc may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Restaurants sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– U-Swirl Inc high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of U-Swirl Inc Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at U-Swirl Inc needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of U-Swirl Inc is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of U-Swirl Inc is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of U-Swirl Inc to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that U-Swirl Inc needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.