SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Propel Funeral Partners (Australia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Propel Funeral Partners is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices,
wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Propel Funeral Partners
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Propel Funeral Partners can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Propel Funeral Partners, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Propel Funeral Partners 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 Propel Funeral Partners can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Propel Funeral Partners
2. Improving business portfolio management of Propel Funeral Partners
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Australia
4. Making a Personal Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Propel Funeral Partners
Strengths of Propel Funeral Partners | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Propel Funeral Partners are -
Strong track record of project management in the Personal Services industry
– Propel Funeral Partners is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Propel Funeral Partners has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Propel Funeral Partners staying ahead in the Personal Services industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Propel Funeral Partners
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Propel Funeral Partners does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Personal Services
– Propel Funeral Partners is one of the leading players in the Personal Services industry in Australia. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Personal Services industry in Australia but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Propel Funeral Partners in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Propel Funeral Partners has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Personal Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Propel Funeral Partners have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Personal Services industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Propel Funeral Partners digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Propel Funeral Partners 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Propel Funeral Partners is one of the leading players in the Personal Services industry in Australia. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Australia. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Propel Funeral Partners 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Propel Funeral Partners has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Propel Funeral Partners 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Personal Services industry
– Propel Funeral Partners has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Propel Funeral Partners to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Personal Services industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Propel Funeral Partners to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Propel Funeral Partners 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 Personal Services industry. The technology infrastructure of Australia 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.
Learning organization
- Propel Funeral Partners 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 Propel Funeral Partners is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Propel Funeral Partners emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of Propel Funeral Partners | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Propel Funeral Partners are -
Employees’ less understanding of Propel Funeral Partners strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Propel Funeral Partners 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Propel Funeral Partners has some of the most successful models in the Personal Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Propel Funeral Partners should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Propel Funeral Partners is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Personal Services industry, but Propel Funeral Partners needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Propel Funeral Partners to focus more on services in the Personal Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Propel Funeral Partners 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Australia, Propel Funeral Partners needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Propel Funeral Partners is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Propel Funeral Partners to provide better information regarding Personal Services products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Propel Funeral Partners is one of the leading players in the Personal Services industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Personal Services industry in last five years.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Propel Funeral Partners has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Personal Services industry over the last five years. Propel Funeral Partners 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.
Skills based hiring in Personal Services industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Propel Funeral Partners 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 bargaining power of channel partners in Personal Services industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Australia, Propel Funeral Partners 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 Personal Services industry.
Need for greater diversity
– Propel Funeral Partners 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.
Propel Funeral Partners Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Propel Funeral Partners are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Propel Funeral Partners 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 Propel Funeral Partners to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Propel Funeral Partners 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 Propel Funeral Partners to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Propel Funeral Partners can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Personal 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Propel Funeral Partners can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Personal Services 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, Propel Funeral Partners can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Propel Funeral Partners operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Personal Services sector.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Personal Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Propel Funeral Partners in the Personal Services industry. Now Propel Funeral Partners can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Propel Funeral Partners has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Personal Services industry. This can help Propel Funeral Partners to build a more holistic ecosystem for Propel Funeral Partners products in the Personal Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Propel Funeral Partners is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Propel Funeral Partners can utilize new technology in the field of Personal Services industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Propel Funeral Partners in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Personal Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Propel Funeral Partners to increase its market reach. Propel Funeral Partners 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Propel Funeral Partners can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Propel Funeral Partners 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Propel Funeral Partners can develop new processes and procedures in Personal Services 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.
Threats Propel Funeral Partners External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Propel Funeral Partners are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Propel Funeral Partners in Personal Services industry. The Personal Services 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
– Propel Funeral Partners has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Personal Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Propel Funeral Partners needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Personal 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Propel Funeral Partners 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 Personal Services industry and other sectors.
Environmental challenges
– Propel Funeral Partners 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. Propel Funeral Partners can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Personal Services industry.
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 Propel Funeral Partners in the Personal Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Propel Funeral Partners.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Propel Funeral Partners 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Personal Services industry are lowering. It can presents Propel Funeral Partners with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Personal Services sector.
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 Propel Funeral Partners business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Propel Funeral Partners 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 Personal Services industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Propel Funeral Partners 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 Propel Funeral Partners prominent markets.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Propel Funeral Partners is facing in Personal Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Propel Funeral Partners Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Propel Funeral Partners 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 Propel Funeral Partners 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 Propel Funeral Partners 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 Propel Funeral Partners 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 Propel Funeral Partners needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.