SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Dassault Aviation (France)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Dassault Aviation is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dassault Aviation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Dassault Aviation can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dassault Aviation, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dassault Aviation 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 Dassault Aviation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Dassault Aviation
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dassault Aviation
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in France
4. Making a Aerospace & Defense sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Dassault Aviation
Strengths of Dassault Aviation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dassault Aviation are -
Innovation driven organization
– Dassault Aviation is one of the most innovative firm in Aerospace & Defense sector.
Learning organization
- Dassault Aviation 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 Dassault Aviation is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Dassault Aviation emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Dassault Aviation comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Aerospace & Defense 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Dassault Aviation has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Aerospace & Defense industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Dassault Aviation have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Dassault Aviation has one of the best training and development program in Capital Goods 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.
Analytics focus
– Dassault Aviation is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the Aerospace & Defense industry. The technology infrastructure of France is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Dassault Aviation in Aerospace & Defense industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Aerospace & Defense industry
– Dassault Aviation has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Dassault Aviation to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Aerospace & Defense industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Dassault Aviation to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dassault Aviation has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Dassault Aviation staying ahead in the Aerospace & Defense industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Aerospace & Defense
– Dassault Aviation is one of the leading players in the Aerospace & Defense industry in France. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Aerospace & Defense industry in France but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Dassault Aviation in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management in the Aerospace & Defense industry
– Dassault Aviation is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Dassault Aviation is one of the leading players in the Aerospace & Defense 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.
Weaknesses of Dassault Aviation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dassault Aviation are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Dassault Aviation is one of the leading players in the Aerospace & Defense industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Aerospace & Defense industry in last five years.
Need for greater diversity
– Dassault Aviation 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Dassault Aviation 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.
High dependence on Dassault Aviation ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Dassault Aviation still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Aerospace & Defense industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Dassault Aviation has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Dassault Aviation products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Dassault Aviation needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Aerospace & Defense industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in France, Dassault Aviation 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 Aerospace & Defense industry.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Aerospace & Defense industry, Dassault Aviation 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Dassault Aviation is just above the Aerospace & Defense 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Dassault Aviation needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Aerospace & Defense industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Dassault Aviation can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Dassault Aviation is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Dassault Aviation is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Aerospace & Defense industry, but Dassault Aviation needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Dassault Aviation to focus more on services in the Aerospace & Defense industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of France, Dassault Aviation needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Dassault Aviation Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Dassault Aviation are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Dassault Aviation 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 Dassault Aviation to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dassault Aviation is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dassault Aviation can utilize new technology in the field of Aerospace & Defense industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Dassault Aviation in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Aerospace & Defense industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Dassault Aviation 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 Aerospace & Defense industry.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Dassault Aviation 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Dassault Aviation 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Dassault Aviation has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Aerospace & Defense industry. This can help Dassault Aviation to build a more holistic ecosystem for Dassault Aviation products in the Aerospace & Defense industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Dassault Aviation to increase its market reach. Dassault Aviation 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Dassault Aviation 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Aerospace & Defense industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Dassault Aviation 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. Dassault Aviation 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Dassault Aviation can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Dassault Aviation operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Aerospace & Defense sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Dassault Aviation can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Dassault Aviation can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Aerospace & Defense 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.
Threats Dassault Aviation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Dassault Aviation are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Dassault Aviation 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 Aerospace & Defense industry.
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. Dassault Aviation 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.
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. Dassault Aviation needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Aerospace & Defense industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Dassault Aviation has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Aerospace & Defense industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Dassault Aviation needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Aerospace & Defense 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Aerospace & Defense industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Dassault Aviation can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Dassault Aviation
– 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 Dassault Aviation.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Dassault Aviation 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 Aerospace & Defense industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dassault Aviation 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 Dassault Aviation prominent markets.
Environmental challenges
– Dassault Aviation 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. Dassault Aviation can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Aerospace & Defense 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 Dassault Aviation in the Aerospace & Defense sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Dassault Aviation is facing in Aerospace & Defense sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Dassault Aviation 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 Aerospace & Defense industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dassault Aviation Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Dassault Aviation 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 Dassault Aviation 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 Dassault Aviation 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 Dassault Aviation 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 Dassault Aviation needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.