SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Trulieve Cannabis (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Trulieve Cannabis is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices,
geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Trulieve Cannabis
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Trulieve Cannabis can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Trulieve Cannabis, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Trulieve Cannabis 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 Trulieve Cannabis can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Trulieve Cannabis
2. Improving business portfolio management of Trulieve Cannabis
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 Trulieve Cannabis
Strengths of Trulieve Cannabis | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Trulieve Cannabis are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Trulieve Cannabis 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 Trulieve Cannabis have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Trulieve Cannabis has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Trulieve Cannabis to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in
– Trulieve Cannabis 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 Trulieve Cannabis 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
– Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Trulieve Cannabis in the sector have low bargaining power. Trulieve Cannabis has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Trulieve Cannabis to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management in the industry
– Trulieve Cannabis is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in industry
– Trulieve Cannabis has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Trulieve Cannabis to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Trulieve Cannabis to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Trulieve Cannabis is one of the most innovative firm in sector.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Trulieve Cannabis in industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Trulieve Cannabis 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 Trulieve Cannabis is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Trulieve Cannabis emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Weaknesses of Trulieve Cannabis | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Trulieve Cannabis are -
Employees’ less understanding of Trulieve Cannabis strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Trulieve Cannabis 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Trulieve Cannabis has high operating costs in the industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Trulieve Cannabis lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Trulieve Cannabis needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Trulieve Cannabis 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.
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 Trulieve Cannabis supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Trulieve Cannabis is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Trulieve Cannabis vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Trulieve Cannabis, in the dynamic environment of industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Trulieve Cannabis has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Trulieve Cannabis is one of the leading players in the industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Trulieve Cannabis products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Trulieve Cannabis needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on Trulieve Cannabis ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Trulieve Cannabis still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Trulieve Cannabis has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Trulieve Cannabis Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Trulieve Cannabis are -
Manufacturing automation
– Trulieve Cannabis can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Trulieve Cannabis can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Trulieve Cannabis operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Trulieve Cannabis is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Trulieve Cannabis 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.
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 Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Trulieve Cannabis 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. Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Trulieve Cannabis to increase its market reach. Trulieve Cannabis will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Trulieve Cannabis in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Trulieve Cannabis can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Trulieve Cannabis 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 Trulieve Cannabis to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Trulieve Cannabis can develop new processes and procedures in 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Trulieve Cannabis can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Trulieve Cannabis External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Trulieve Cannabis are -
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. Trulieve Cannabis needs to understand the core reasons impacting the industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Trulieve Cannabis.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Trulieve Cannabis has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Trulieve Cannabis 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.
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.
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.
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 Trulieve Cannabis business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Trulieve Cannabis 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. Trulieve Cannabis can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Trulieve Cannabis needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Trulieve Cannabis 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Trulieve Cannabis Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Trulieve Cannabis 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 Trulieve Cannabis 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 Trulieve Cannabis 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 Trulieve Cannabis 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 Trulieve Cannabis needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.