Ainsworth Game Technology (AGI) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Casinos & Gaming
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Ainsworth Game Technology (Australia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Ainsworth Game Technology is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ainsworth Game Technology
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Ainsworth Game Technology can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ainsworth Game Technology, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ainsworth Game Technology 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 Ainsworth Game Technology can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Ainsworth Game Technology
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ainsworth Game Technology
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Australia
4. Making a Casinos & Gaming sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ainsworth Game Technology
Strengths of Ainsworth Game Technology | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ainsworth Game Technology are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Ainsworth Game Technology comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Casinos & Gaming 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ainsworth Game Technology 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
– Ainsworth Game Technology has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ainsworth Game Technology 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Ainsworth Game Technology is one of the most innovative firm in Casinos & Gaming sector.
Learning organization
- Ainsworth Game Technology 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 Ainsworth Game Technology is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Ainsworth Game Technology emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Ainsworth Game Technology has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ainsworth Game Technology to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Ainsworth Game Technology 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 Casinos & Gaming 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ainsworth Game Technology is present in almost all the verticals within the Casinos & Gaming industry. This has provided Ainsworth Game Technology 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.
Digital Transformation in Casinos & Gaming industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ainsworth Game Technology digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ainsworth Game Technology 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ainsworth Game Technology has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Casinos & Gaming industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Ainsworth Game Technology have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ainsworth Game Technology has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Ainsworth Game Technology staying ahead in the Casinos & Gaming industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Ainsworth Game Technology 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.
Weaknesses of Ainsworth Game Technology | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ainsworth Game Technology are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Ainsworth Game Technology is just above the Casinos & Gaming 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ainsworth Game Technology is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Casinos & Gaming industry, but Ainsworth Game Technology needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ainsworth Game Technology to focus more on services in the Casinos & Gaming industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ainsworth Game Technology products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ainsworth Game Technology needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ainsworth Game Technology is one of the leading players in the Casinos & Gaming industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Casinos & Gaming industry in last five years.
Employees’ less understanding of Ainsworth Game Technology strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Ainsworth Game Technology 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Ainsworth Game Technology, in the dynamic environment of Casinos & Gaming industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ainsworth Game Technology has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Ainsworth Game Technology supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Ainsworth Game Technology is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ainsworth Game Technology vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ainsworth Game Technology 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 Casinos & Gaming industry using digital technology.
Need for greater diversity
– Ainsworth Game Technology 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Casinos & Gaming industry, Ainsworth Game Technology needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Ainsworth Game Technology, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Casinos & Gaming 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.
Ainsworth Game Technology Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Ainsworth Game Technology are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ainsworth Game Technology has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Casinos & Gaming sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Ainsworth Game Technology to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ainsworth Game Technology 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 Ainsworth Game Technology has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Casinos & Gaming industry. This can help Ainsworth Game Technology to build a more holistic ecosystem for Ainsworth Game Technology products in the Casinos & Gaming industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Casinos & Gaming industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Ainsworth Game Technology in the Casinos & Gaming industry. Now Ainsworth Game Technology can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ainsworth Game Technology can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Casinos & Gaming industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ainsworth Game Technology 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. Ainsworth Game Technology 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Ainsworth Game Technology can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Casinos & Gaming 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, Ainsworth Game Technology 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ainsworth Game Technology can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Casinos & Gaming 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ainsworth Game Technology is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ainsworth Game Technology can utilize new technology in the field of Casinos & Gaming industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, 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, Ainsworth Game Technology can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ainsworth Game Technology operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Casinos & Gaming sector.
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 Ainsworth Game Technology 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Casinos & Gaming industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Ainsworth Game Technology can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ainsworth Game Technology to increase its market reach. Ainsworth Game Technology 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.
Threats Ainsworth Game Technology External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Ainsworth Game Technology are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ainsworth Game Technology 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 Casinos & Gaming 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 Ainsworth Game Technology in the Casinos & Gaming sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Casinos & Gaming industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Ainsworth Game Technology can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ainsworth Game Technology 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 Casinos & Gaming industry are lowering. It can presents Ainsworth Game Technology with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Casinos & Gaming sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Ainsworth Game Technology may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Casinos & Gaming sector.
Environmental challenges
– Ainsworth Game Technology 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. Ainsworth Game Technology can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Casinos & Gaming industry.
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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ainsworth Game Technology has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Casinos & Gaming industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ainsworth Game Technology needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Casinos & Gaming 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.
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 Ainsworth Game Technology.
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. Ainsworth Game Technology needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Casinos & Gaming industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Ainsworth Game Technology
– 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 Ainsworth Game Technology.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ainsworth Game Technology Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Ainsworth Game Technology 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 Ainsworth Game Technology 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 Ainsworth Game Technology 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 Ainsworth Game Technology 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 Ainsworth Game Technology needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
