Clean Seas Seafood (CSSDA) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Clean Seas Seafood (Australia)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Clean Seas Seafood is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Clean Seas Seafood

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Clean Seas Seafood can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Clean Seas Seafood, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Clean Seas Seafood 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Clean Seas Seafood can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Clean Seas Seafood
2. Improving business portfolio management of Clean Seas Seafood
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Australia
4. Making a Fish/Livestock sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Clean Seas Seafood

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Strengths of Clean Seas Seafood | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Clean Seas Seafood are -

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Clean Seas Seafood 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.

Digital Transformation in Fish/Livestock industry

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Clean Seas Seafood digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Clean Seas Seafood 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.

Strong track record of project management in the Fish/Livestock industry

– Clean Seas Seafood is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Clean Seas Seafood has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Clean Seas Seafood 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Clean Seas Seafood comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Fish/Livestock 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Clean Seas Seafood is present in almost all the verticals within the Fish/Livestock industry. This has provided Clean Seas Seafood 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Clean Seas Seafood 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Fish/Livestock industry

– Clean Seas Seafood has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Clean Seas Seafood to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Fish/Livestock industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Clean Seas Seafood to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

High brand equity

– Clean Seas Seafood has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Clean Seas Seafood to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Ability to lead change in Fish/Livestock

– Clean Seas Seafood is one of the leading players in the Fish/Livestock industry in Australia. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Fish/Livestock industry in Australia but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Clean Seas Seafood in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Clean Seas Seafood in Fish/Livestock industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Clean Seas Seafood in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Clean Seas Seafood has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Clean Seas Seafood to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

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Weaknesses of Clean Seas Seafood | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Clean Seas Seafood are -

High dependence on Clean Seas Seafood ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Clean Seas Seafood still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Fish/Livestock industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Clean Seas Seafood has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Clean Seas Seafood is just above the Fish/Livestock 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.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, Clean Seas Seafood has high operating costs in the Fish/Livestock industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Clean Seas Seafood lucrative customers.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Clean Seas Seafood is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Fish/Livestock industry, but Clean Seas Seafood needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Clean Seas Seafood to focus more on services in the Fish/Livestock industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Clean Seas Seafood, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Fish/Livestock 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 decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Clean Seas Seafood has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Fish/Livestock industry over the last five years. Clean Seas Seafood even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.

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 Clean Seas Seafood supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Clean Seas Seafood is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Clean Seas Seafood vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Clean Seas Seafood, in the dynamic environment of Fish/Livestock industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Clean Seas Seafood has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Clean Seas Seafood needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Fish/Livestock industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Clean Seas Seafood can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Clean Seas Seafood is planning to shift buying processes online.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Fish/Livestock industry, Clean Seas Seafood 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.

Skills based hiring in Fish/Livestock industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Clean Seas Seafood 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.

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Clean Seas Seafood Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Clean Seas Seafood are -

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Clean Seas Seafood 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Clean Seas Seafood 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 Fish/Livestock industry.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Clean Seas Seafood 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 Clean Seas Seafood to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Manufacturing automation

– Clean Seas Seafood can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Fish/Livestock 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.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Fish/Livestock industry

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Clean Seas Seafood in the Fish/Livestock industry. Now Clean Seas Seafood can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Clean Seas Seafood 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.

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. Clean Seas Seafood can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Fish/Livestock industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Clean Seas Seafood 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. Clean Seas Seafood 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Clean Seas Seafood can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Clean Seas Seafood is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Clean Seas Seafood can utilize new technology in the field of Fish/Livestock industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Clean Seas Seafood has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Fish/Livestock sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Clean Seas Seafood to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Clean Seas Seafood to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

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 Clean Seas Seafood 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 Clean Seas Seafood 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 Clean Seas Seafood to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

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Threats Clean Seas Seafood External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Clean Seas Seafood are -

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Clean Seas Seafood in Fish/Livestock industry. The Fish/Livestock 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.

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. Clean Seas Seafood needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Fish/Livestock industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Clean Seas Seafood 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 Clean Seas Seafood prominent markets.

Environmental challenges

– Clean Seas Seafood 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. Clean Seas Seafood can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Fish/Livestock industry.

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 Clean Seas Seafood.

Increasing wage structure of Clean Seas Seafood

– 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 Clean Seas Seafood.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Clean Seas Seafood is facing in Fish/Livestock sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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 Clean Seas Seafood in the Fish/Livestock sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Clean Seas Seafood 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 Fish/Livestock industry.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Clean Seas Seafood has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Fish/Livestock industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Clean Seas Seafood needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Fish/Livestock 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, Clean Seas Seafood may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Fish/Livestock sector.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Fish/Livestock industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Clean Seas Seafood can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Clean Seas Seafood Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Clean Seas Seafood 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 Clean Seas Seafood 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 Clean Seas Seafood 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 Clean Seas Seafood 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 Clean Seas Seafood needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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