SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Thor Industries (United States)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Thor Industries is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Thor Industries can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Thor Industries, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Thor Industries 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 Thor Industries can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Thor Industries
2. Improving business portfolio management of Thor Industries
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in United States
4. Making a Mobile Homes & RVs sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Thor Industries
Strengths of Thor Industries | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Thor Industries are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Thor Industries is one of the leading players in the Mobile Homes & RVs 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Thor Industries 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Thor Industries has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Thor Industries 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Thor Industries has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Mobile Homes & RVs industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Thor Industries have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Thor Industries
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Thor Industries does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Thor Industries 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry
– Thor Industries 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 Mobile Homes & RVs industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Thor Industries digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Thor Industries 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Mobile Homes & RVs industry
– Thor Industries has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Thor Industries to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Thor Industries to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Thor Industries comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Mobile Homes & RVs 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 brand equity
– Thor Industries has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Thor Industries to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Thor Industries is present in almost all the verticals within the Mobile Homes & RVs industry. This has provided Thor Industries 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.
Weaknesses of Thor Industries | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Thor Industries are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Thor Industries 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 Mobile Homes & RVs industry using digital technology.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Thor Industries is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry, but Thor Industries needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Thor Industries to focus more on services in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Thor Industries has some of the most successful models in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Thor Industries should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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 Thor Industries supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Thor Industries is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Thor Industries vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Thor Industries is one of the leading players in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry in last five years.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Thor Industries needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Thor Industries can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Thor Industries is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of United States, Thor Industries needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Thor Industries has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Skills based hiring in Mobile Homes & RVs industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Thor Industries 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Thor Industries, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Mobile Homes & RVs 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Thor Industries 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.
Thor Industries Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Thor Industries are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Thor Industries can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Thor Industries operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Mobile Homes & RVs sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Thor Industries can develop new processes and procedures in Mobile Homes & RVs 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.
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. Thor Industries can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Thor Industries 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Thor Industries is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Thor Industries can utilize new technology in the field of Mobile Homes & RVs 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 Thor Industries 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 Mobile Homes & RVs industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Thor Industries 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. Thor Industries 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Thor Industries in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Thor Industries 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 Mobile Homes & RVs industry.
Manufacturing automation
– Thor Industries can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Mobile Homes & RVs 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Thor Industries 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 Thor Industries to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Thor Industries has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Mobile Homes & RVs sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Thor Industries to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Thor Industries to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Thor Industries has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Mobile Homes & RVs industry. This can help Thor Industries to build a more holistic ecosystem for Thor Industries products in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Thor Industries External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Thor Industries are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Thor Industries 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 Mobile Homes & RVs industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Thor Industries in Mobile Homes & RVs industry. The Mobile Homes & RVs 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Thor Industries 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 Mobile Homes & RVs industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Thor Industries may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Mobile Homes & RVs sector.
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 Thor Industries in the Mobile Homes & RVs sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Thor Industries 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 Thor Industries prominent markets.
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 Mobile Homes & RVs industry are lowering. It can presents Thor Industries with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Mobile Homes & RVs sector.
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 Thor Industries.
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 Thor Industries business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Thor Industries 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. Thor Industries can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Mobile Homes & RVs industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Thor Industries can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Thor Industries 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 Thor Industries Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Thor Industries 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 Thor Industries 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 Thor Industries 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 Thor Industries 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 Thor Industries needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.