Robam Appliances A (2508) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Robam Appliances A (China)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Robam Appliances A is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, etc

---

---

---

---

Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Robam Appliances A

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Robam Appliances A can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Robam Appliances A, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Robam Appliances A 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 Robam Appliances A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Robam Appliances A
2. Improving business portfolio management of Robam Appliances A
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Appliance & Tool sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Robam Appliances A

---

Strengths of Robam Appliances A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Robam Appliances A are -

Strong track record of project management in the Appliance & Tool industry

– Robam Appliances A is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Appliance & Tool industry

– Robam Appliances A has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Robam Appliances A to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Appliance & Tool industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Robam Appliances A to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Training and development

– Robam Appliances A has one of the best training and development program in Consumer Cyclical 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.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Robam Appliances A has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Robam Appliances A 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Robam Appliances A in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Robam Appliances A has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Robam Appliances A to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Innovation driven organization

– Robam Appliances A is one of the most innovative firm in Appliance & Tool sector.

Learning organization

- Robam Appliances A 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 Robam Appliances A is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Robam Appliances A emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Robam Appliances A 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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Robam Appliances A in Appliance & Tool industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Robam Appliances A has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Robam Appliances A staying ahead in the Appliance & Tool industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Robam Appliances A has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Appliance & Tool industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Robam Appliances A have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Digital Transformation in Appliance & Tool industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Robam Appliances A digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Robam Appliances A 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 Robam Appliances A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Robam Appliances A are -

Skills based hiring in Appliance & Tool industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Robam Appliances A 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.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Robam Appliances A has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Appliance & Tool industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.

High bargaining power of channel partners in Appliance & Tool industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Robam Appliances A is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Appliance & Tool industry.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Robam Appliances A is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Appliance & Tool industry, but Robam Appliances A needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Robam Appliances A to focus more on services in the Appliance & Tool industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Robam Appliances A has some of the most successful models in the Appliance & Tool industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Robam Appliances A should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Robam Appliances A, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Appliance & Tool 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, Robam Appliances A 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 Robam Appliances A is one of the leading players in the Appliance & Tool industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Appliance & Tool industry in last five years.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Robam Appliances A is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Robam Appliances A to provide better information regarding Appliance & Tool products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Robam Appliances A 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 Appliance & Tool industry using digital technology.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Robam Appliances A is just above the Appliance & Tool 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.

---

Robam Appliances A Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Robam Appliances A are -

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Robam Appliances A 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 Robam Appliances A to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Robam Appliances A has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Appliance & Tool sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Robam Appliances A to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Robam Appliances A to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Buying journey improvements

– Robam Appliances A can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Appliance & Tool 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Robam Appliances A can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Appliance & Tool 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Robam Appliances A 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Robam Appliances A 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

– Robam Appliances A 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Robam Appliances A is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Robam Appliances A can utilize new technology in the field of Appliance & Tool industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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. Robam Appliances A 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 Robam Appliances A 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 Robam Appliances A to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Robam Appliances A 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Robam Appliances A to increase its market reach. Robam Appliances A 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Robam Appliances A has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Appliance & Tool industry. This can help Robam Appliances A to build a more holistic ecosystem for Robam Appliances A products in the Appliance & Tool industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

---

Threats Robam Appliances A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Robam Appliances A are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Robam Appliances A may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Appliance & Tool sector.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Appliance & Tool industry are lowering. It can presents Robam Appliances A with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Appliance & Tool sector.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Robam Appliances A is facing in Appliance & Tool sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Robam Appliances A 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 Appliance & Tool industry and other sectors.

Regulatory challenges

– Robam Appliances A 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 Appliance & Tool industry regulations.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Appliance & Tool industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Robam Appliances A can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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. Robam Appliances A needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Appliance & Tool 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 Robam Appliances A.

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. Robam Appliances A 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Robam Appliances A 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 Appliance & Tool industry.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Robam Appliances A 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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Robam Appliances A 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 Robam Appliances A prominent markets.

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 Robam Appliances A business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

---

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Robam Appliances A Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Robam Appliances A 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 Robam Appliances A 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 Robam Appliances A 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 Robam Appliances A 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 Robam Appliances A needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

--- ---