SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Europol Intelligent Network (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Europol Intelligent Network is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices,
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, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Europol Intelligent Network
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Europol Intelligent Network can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Europol Intelligent Network, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Europol Intelligent Network 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 Europol Intelligent Network can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Europol Intelligent Network
2. Improving business portfolio management of Europol Intelligent Network
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Trucking sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Europol Intelligent Network
Strengths of Europol Intelligent Network | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Europol Intelligent Network are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Europol Intelligent Network is present in almost all the verticals within the Trucking industry. This has provided Europol Intelligent Network 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Trucking industry
– Europol Intelligent Network has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Europol Intelligent Network to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Trucking industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Europol Intelligent Network to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Europol Intelligent Network has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Europol Intelligent Network 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.
Ability to lead change in Trucking
– Europol Intelligent Network is one of the leading players in the Trucking industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Trucking industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Europol Intelligent Network in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Europol Intelligent Network
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Europol Intelligent Network does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Europol Intelligent Network 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.
Training and development
– Europol Intelligent Network has one of the best training and development program in Transportation 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.
Digital Transformation in Trucking industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Europol Intelligent Network digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Europol Intelligent Network 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.
Analytics focus
– Europol Intelligent Network 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 Trucking industry. The technology infrastructure of China 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
- Europol Intelligent Network 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 Europol Intelligent Network is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Europol Intelligent Network emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management in the Trucking industry
– Europol Intelligent Network is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Europol Intelligent Network in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. Europol Intelligent Network has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Europol Intelligent Network to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses of Europol Intelligent Network | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Europol Intelligent Network are -
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 Europol Intelligent Network supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Europol Intelligent Network is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Europol Intelligent Network vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Europol Intelligent Network is one of the leading players in the Trucking industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Trucking industry in last five years.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Europol Intelligent Network needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Trucking industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Europol Intelligent Network can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Europol Intelligent Network is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on Europol Intelligent Network ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Europol Intelligent Network still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Trucking industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Europol Intelligent Network has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Europol Intelligent Network, in the dynamic environment of Trucking industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Europol Intelligent Network has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Europol Intelligent Network 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Europol Intelligent Network is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Trucking industry, but Europol Intelligent Network needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Europol Intelligent Network to focus more on services in the Trucking industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Trucking industry, Europol Intelligent Network 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 Europol Intelligent Network, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Trucking 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Europol Intelligent Network is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Europol Intelligent Network to provide better information regarding Trucking products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Trucking industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Europol Intelligent Network 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 Trucking industry.
Europol Intelligent Network Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Europol Intelligent Network are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Europol Intelligent Network 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Europol Intelligent Network 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Europol Intelligent Network can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Trucking industry.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Europol Intelligent Network to increase its market reach. Europol Intelligent Network 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 Europol Intelligent Network can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Europol Intelligent Network 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Europol Intelligent Network 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 Europol Intelligent Network to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Europol Intelligent Network can develop new processes and procedures in Trucking 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Europol Intelligent Network can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Europol Intelligent Network operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Trucking sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Europol Intelligent Network has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Trucking industry. This can help Europol Intelligent Network to build a more holistic ecosystem for Europol Intelligent Network products in the Trucking 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 Trucking industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Europol Intelligent Network in the Trucking industry. Now Europol Intelligent Network can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Europol Intelligent Network 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 Europol Intelligent Network 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 Trucking industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Europol Intelligent Network can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Europol Intelligent Network External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Europol Intelligent Network are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Europol Intelligent Network 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 Trucking industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Europol Intelligent Network may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Trucking sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Europol Intelligent Network 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.
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 Europol Intelligent Network.
Increasing wage structure of Europol Intelligent Network
– 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 Europol Intelligent Network.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Europol Intelligent Network in Trucking industry. The Trucking 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Europol Intelligent Network is facing in Trucking sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Europol Intelligent Network 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. Europol Intelligent Network can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Trucking 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 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.
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 Europol Intelligent Network in the Trucking sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Europol Intelligent Network 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 Trucking industry and other sectors.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Trucking industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Europol Intelligent Network 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 Europol Intelligent Network Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Europol Intelligent Network 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 Europol Intelligent Network 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 Europol Intelligent Network 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 Europol Intelligent Network 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 Europol Intelligent Network needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.