SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Financiere Odet (France)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Financiere Odet is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Financiere Odet can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Financiere Odet, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Financiere Odet 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 Financiere Odet can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Financiere Odet
2. Improving business portfolio management of Financiere Odet
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in France
4. Making a Motion Pictures sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Financiere Odet
Strengths of Financiere Odet | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Financiere Odet are -
Learning organization
- Financiere Odet 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 Financiere Odet is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Financiere Odet emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Financiere Odet in the Services sector have low bargaining power. Financiere Odet has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Financiere Odet to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Financiere Odet is one of the leading players in the Motion Pictures 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Financiere Odet in Motion Pictures industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Financiere Odet has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Financiere Odet 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 Motion Pictures industry
– Financiere Odet has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Financiere Odet to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Motion Pictures industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Financiere Odet to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Financiere Odet 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Financiere Odet is present in almost all the verticals within the Motion Pictures industry. This has provided Financiere Odet 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Financiere Odet has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Motion Pictures industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Financiere Odet have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Financiere Odet comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Motion Pictures 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.
Digital Transformation in Motion Pictures industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Financiere Odet digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Financiere Odet 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.
Ability to lead change in Motion Pictures
– Financiere Odet is one of the leading players in the Motion Pictures industry in France. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Motion Pictures industry in France but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Financiere Odet in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Financiere Odet | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Financiere Odet are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Financiere Odet is one of the leading players in the Motion Pictures industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Motion Pictures industry in last five years.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Financiere Odet is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Motion Pictures industry, but Financiere Odet needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Financiere Odet to focus more on services in the Motion Pictures industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Financiere Odet, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Motion Pictures 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.
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 Financiere Odet supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Financiere Odet is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Financiere Odet vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of France, Financiere Odet needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Motion Pictures industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in France, Financiere Odet 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 Motion Pictures industry.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Financiere Odet has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Motion Pictures industry over the last five years. Financiere Odet 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Financiere Odet has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Motion Pictures industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Skills based hiring in Motion Pictures industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Financiere Odet 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Motion Pictures industry, Financiere Odet 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.
Employees’ less understanding of Financiere Odet strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Financiere Odet 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.
Financiere Odet Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Financiere Odet are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Financiere Odet 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Financiere Odet to increase its market reach. Financiere Odet 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Financiere Odet can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Motion Pictures 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Financiere Odet in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Motion Pictures industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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. Financiere Odet can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Financiere Odet 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 Financiere Odet to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Financiere Odet 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Motion Pictures industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Financiere Odet in the Motion Pictures industry. Now Financiere Odet can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Financiere Odet can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Motion Pictures 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Financiere Odet has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Motion Pictures industry. This can help Financiere Odet to build a more holistic ecosystem for Financiere Odet products in the Motion Pictures industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Financiere Odet 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Financiere Odet 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, Financiere Odet is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Financiere Odet can utilize new technology in the field of Motion Pictures industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Threats Financiere Odet External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Financiere Odet are -
Environmental challenges
– Financiere Odet 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. Financiere Odet can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Motion Pictures industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Motion Pictures industry are lowering. It can presents Financiere Odet with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Motion Pictures sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Financiere Odet 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 Motion Pictures industry and other sectors.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Financiere Odet high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Increasing wage structure of Financiere Odet
– 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 Financiere Odet.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Financiere Odet 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 Financiere Odet prominent markets.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Financiere Odet is facing in Motion Pictures 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Motion Pictures industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Financiere Odet can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Financiere Odet has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Motion Pictures industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Financiere Odet needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Motion Pictures 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.
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 Financiere Odet.
Regulatory challenges
– Financiere Odet 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 Motion Pictures industry regulations.
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 Financiere Odet business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Financiere Odet Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Financiere Odet 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 Financiere Odet 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 Financiere Odet 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 Financiere Odet 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 Financiere Odet needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.