SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Itissalat Al-Maghrib (France)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Itissalat Al-Maghrib is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Itissalat Al-Maghrib
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Itissalat Al-Maghrib can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Itissalat Al-Maghrib, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Itissalat Al-Maghrib
2. Improving business portfolio management of Itissalat Al-Maghrib
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in France
4. Making a Communications Services sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Itissalat Al-Maghrib
Strengths of Itissalat Al-Maghrib | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Itissalat Al-Maghrib are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib is one of the leading players in the Communications Services industry in France. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in France. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Organizational Resilience of Itissalat Al-Maghrib
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Itissalat Al-Maghrib does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management in the Communications Services industry
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib is present in almost all the verticals within the Communications Services industry. This has provided Itissalat Al-Maghrib a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
High brand equity
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Itissalat Al-Maghrib to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Itissalat Al-Maghrib in Communications Services industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib is one of the most innovative firm in Communications Services sector.
Ability to lead change in Communications Services
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib is one of the leading players in the Communications Services industry in France. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Communications Services industry in France but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Itissalat Al-Maghrib in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Communications Services industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Itissalat Al-Maghrib have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses of Itissalat Al-Maghrib | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Itissalat Al-Maghrib are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Itissalat Al-Maghrib has high operating costs in the Communications Services industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Itissalat Al-Maghrib lucrative customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Itissalat Al-Maghrib products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Itissalat Al-Maghrib needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Itissalat Al-Maghrib has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Communications Services industry over the last five years. Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Communications Services industry, Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 France, Itissalat Al-Maghrib needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Itissalat Al-Maghrib has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Need for greater diversity
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Itissalat Al-Maghrib still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Communications Services industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Itissalat Al-Maghrib has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Itissalat Al-Maghrib is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Communications Services industry, but Itissalat Al-Maghrib needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Itissalat Al-Maghrib to focus more on services in the Communications Services industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Itissalat Al-Maghrib is just above the Communications Services 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Itissalat Al-Maghrib has some of the most successful models in the Communications Services industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Itissalat Al-Maghrib should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Itissalat Al-Maghrib Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Itissalat Al-Maghrib are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Communications Services 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Communications Services industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Itissalat Al-Maghrib in the Communications Services industry. Now Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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, Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Communications Services 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Itissalat Al-Maghrib has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Communications Services industry. This can help Itissalat Al-Maghrib to build a more holistic ecosystem for Itissalat Al-Maghrib products in the Communications Services industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Itissalat Al-Maghrib in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Communications Services industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Communications Services industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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. Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib can develop new processes and procedures in Communications Services 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Itissalat Al-Maghrib can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Itissalat Al-Maghrib External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Itissalat Al-Maghrib are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Communications Services industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Itissalat Al-Maghrib needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Communications Services 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Communications Services industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Communications Services industry and other sectors.
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. Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Communications Services industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Itissalat Al-Maghrib can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Itissalat Al-Maghrib needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Communications Services industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Itissalat Al-Maghrib
– 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Itissalat Al-Maghrib in Communications Services industry. The Communications Services 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.
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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib.
Environmental challenges
– Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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. Itissalat Al-Maghrib can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communications Services industry.
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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib in the Communications Services sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Itissalat Al-Maghrib is facing in Communications Services sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Itissalat Al-Maghrib Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib 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 Itissalat Al-Maghrib needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.