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 – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, 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 -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Europol Intelligent Network are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Europol Intelligent Network in Trucking industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
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.
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.
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.
High brand equity
– Europol Intelligent Network has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Europol Intelligent Network to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
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.
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.
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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Europol Intelligent Network has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Trucking industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Europol Intelligent Network have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
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.
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.
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 -
Employees’ less understanding of Europol Intelligent Network strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Europol Intelligent Network 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.
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.
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.
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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Europol Intelligent Network needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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.
Skills based hiring in Trucking industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Europol Intelligent Network 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.
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.
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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Europol Intelligent Network products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Europol Intelligent Network needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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.
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 -
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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Europol Intelligent Network 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.
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.
Buying journey improvements
– Europol Intelligent Network can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Trucking 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.
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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Europol Intelligent Network can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
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.
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.
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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Trucking industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Europol Intelligent Network 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. Europol Intelligent Network 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.
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. Europol Intelligent Network can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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 Europol Intelligent Network business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Europol Intelligent Network 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 Europol Intelligent Network prominent markets.
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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Europol Intelligent Network has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Trucking industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Europol Intelligent Network needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Trucking 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.
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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Europol Intelligent Network 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 Trucking industry regulations.
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. Europol Intelligent Network needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Trucking industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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.
