Saturday Shoes A (2291) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Footwear
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Saturday Shoes A (China)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Saturday Shoes A is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Saturday Shoes A can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Saturday Shoes A, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Saturday Shoes A 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 Saturday Shoes A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Saturday Shoes A
2. Improving business portfolio management of Saturday Shoes A
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in China
4. Making a Footwear sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Saturday Shoes A
Strengths of Saturday Shoes A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Saturday Shoes A are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Saturday Shoes A has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Saturday Shoes A staying ahead in the Footwear industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Saturday Shoes A are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Saturday Shoes A has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Saturday Shoes A 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Footwear industry
– Saturday Shoes A has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Saturday Shoes A to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Footwear industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Saturday Shoes A to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Saturday Shoes A has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Saturday Shoes A to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Saturday Shoes A 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 Saturday Shoes A is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Saturday Shoes A emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Saturday Shoes A
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Saturday Shoes A does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Saturday Shoes A has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Footwear industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Saturday Shoes A have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Saturday Shoes A has one of the best training and development program in Consumer Cyclical 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.
Ability to lead change in Footwear
– Saturday Shoes A is one of the leading players in the Footwear industry in China. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Footwear industry in China but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Saturday Shoes A in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Saturday Shoes A in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Saturday Shoes A has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Saturday Shoes A to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Saturday Shoes A comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Footwear 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.
Weaknesses of Saturday Shoes A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Saturday Shoes A are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Saturday Shoes A has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Footwear industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Footwear industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in China, Saturday Shoes A 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 Footwear industry.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Saturday Shoes A needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Footwear industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Saturday Shoes A can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Saturday Shoes A is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of China, Saturday Shoes A needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Saturday Shoes A is one of the leading players in the Footwear industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Footwear industry in last five years.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Saturday Shoes A has high operating costs in the Footwear industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Saturday Shoes A lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Saturday Shoes A has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Footwear industry over the last five years. Saturday Shoes A 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 Saturday Shoes A supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Saturday Shoes A is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Saturday Shoes A vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Saturday Shoes A is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Footwear industry, but Saturday Shoes A needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Saturday Shoes A to focus more on services in the Footwear industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Saturday Shoes A is just above the Footwear 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Saturday Shoes A is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Saturday Shoes A to provide better information regarding Footwear products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Saturday Shoes A Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Saturday Shoes A are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Saturday Shoes A 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Saturday Shoes A is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Saturday Shoes A can utilize new technology in the field of Footwear industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Saturday Shoes A can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Footwear 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.
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 Saturday Shoes A 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Saturday Shoes A can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Saturday Shoes A operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Footwear sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Saturday Shoes A 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.
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. Saturday Shoes A can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Saturday Shoes A can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Footwear 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 Saturday Shoes A to increase its market reach. Saturday Shoes A 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Saturday Shoes A 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 Saturday Shoes A to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Saturday Shoes A 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 Footwear industry.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Saturday Shoes A in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Footwear industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Saturday Shoes A 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 Saturday Shoes A to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Saturday Shoes A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Saturday Shoes A are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Saturday Shoes A 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 Saturday Shoes A prominent markets.
Environmental challenges
– Saturday Shoes A 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. Saturday Shoes A can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Footwear industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Saturday Shoes A is facing in Footwear sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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. Saturday Shoes A needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Footwear 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Saturday Shoes A 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 Footwear industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Saturday Shoes A 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 Footwear industry and other sectors.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Footwear industry are lowering. It can presents Saturday Shoes A with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Footwear sector.
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. Saturday Shoes A 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Saturday Shoes A may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Footwear sector.
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 Saturday Shoes A business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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 Saturday Shoes A in the Footwear sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Saturday Shoes A Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Saturday Shoes A 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 Saturday Shoes A 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 Saturday Shoes A 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 Saturday Shoes A 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 Saturday Shoes A needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.