Apollo Tourism & Leisure (ATL) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Mobile Homes & RVs
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Apollo Tourism & Leisure (Australia)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Apollo Tourism & Leisure is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Apollo Tourism & Leisure
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Apollo Tourism & Leisure can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Apollo Tourism & Leisure, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Apollo Tourism & Leisure
2. Improving business portfolio management of Apollo Tourism & Leisure
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Australia
4. Making a Mobile Homes & RVs sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Apollo Tourism & Leisure
Strengths of Apollo Tourism & Leisure | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Apollo Tourism & Leisure are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure is one of the leading players in the Mobile Homes & RVs 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Apollo Tourism & Leisure in Mobile Homes & RVs industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Mobile Homes & RVs industry
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Apollo Tourism & Leisure to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Apollo Tourism & Leisure to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 Mobile Homes & RVs 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.
Ability to lead change in Mobile Homes & RVs
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure is one of the leading players in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry in Australia. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry in Australia but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Apollo Tourism & Leisure in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure is present in almost all the verticals within the Mobile Homes & RVs industry. This has provided Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
High brand equity
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Apollo Tourism & Leisure to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Strong track record of project management in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Apollo Tourism & Leisure
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Apollo Tourism & Leisure does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses of Apollo Tourism & Leisure | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Apollo Tourism & Leisure are -
Skills based hiring in Mobile Homes & RVs industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 dependence on Apollo Tourism & Leisure ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Apollo Tourism & Leisure still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Mobile Homes & RVs industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Apollo Tourism & Leisure has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Apollo Tourism & Leisure is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Apollo Tourism & Leisure to provide better information regarding Mobile Homes & RVs products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Australia, Apollo Tourism & Leisure needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Apollo Tourism & Leisure products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Apollo Tourism & Leisure needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Apollo Tourism & Leisure has high operating costs in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Apollo Tourism & Leisure lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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. Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Apollo Tourism & Leisure, in the dynamic environment of Mobile Homes & RVs industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Apollo Tourism & Leisure has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Apollo Tourism & Leisure Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Apollo Tourism & Leisure are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Apollo Tourism & Leisure has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Mobile Homes & RVs industry. This can help Apollo Tourism & Leisure to build a more holistic ecosystem for Apollo Tourism & Leisure products in the Mobile Homes & RVs industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Apollo Tourism & Leisure to increase its market reach. Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Mobile Homes & RVs industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Apollo Tourism & Leisure can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Apollo Tourism & Leisure can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Apollo Tourism & Leisure can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Apollo Tourism & Leisure to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Apollo Tourism & Leisure is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Mobile Homes & RVs 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
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Threats Apollo Tourism & Leisure External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Apollo Tourism & Leisure are -
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
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Environmental challenges
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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. Apollo Tourism & Leisure can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
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. Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Increasing wage structure of Apollo Tourism & Leisure
– 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Apollo Tourism & Leisure is facing in Mobile Homes & RVs sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Apollo Tourism & Leisure can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Apollo Tourism & Leisure Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure 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 Apollo Tourism & Leisure needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
