SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for GDS Moulins Strasbourg (France)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , GDS Moulins Strasbourg is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of GDS Moulins Strasbourg
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that GDS Moulins Strasbourg can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the GDS Moulins Strasbourg, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of GDS Moulins Strasbourg
2. Improving business portfolio management of GDS Moulins Strasbourg
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in France
4. Making a Food Processing sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of GDS Moulins Strasbourg
Strengths of GDS Moulins Strasbourg | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of GDS Moulins Strasbourg are -
Training and development
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-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.
Digital Transformation in Food Processing industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For GDS Moulins Strasbourg digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of GDS Moulins Strasbourg in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. GDS Moulins Strasbourg has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps GDS Moulins Strasbourg to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 Food Processing 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.
Learning organization
- GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at GDS Moulins Strasbourg emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
Organizational Resilience of GDS Moulins Strasbourg
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing GDS Moulins Strasbourg does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of GDS Moulins Strasbourg in Food Processing industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Food Processing
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg is one of the leading players in the Food Processing industry in France. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Food Processing industry in France but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled GDS Moulins Strasbourg in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Food Processing industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of GDS Moulins Strasbourg have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg is one of the leading players in the Food Processing 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of GDS Moulins Strasbourg are -
High bargaining power of channel partners in Food Processing industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in France, GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 Food Processing industry.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As GDS Moulins Strasbourg is one of the leading players in the Food Processing industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Food Processing industry in last five years.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of GDS Moulins Strasbourg, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Food Processing 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at GDS Moulins Strasbourg, in the dynamic environment of Food Processing industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. GDS Moulins Strasbourg has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ less understanding of GDS Moulins Strasbourg strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though GDS Moulins Strasbourg has some of the most successful models in the Food Processing industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. GDS Moulins Strasbourg should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of GDS Moulins Strasbourg products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, GDS Moulins Strasbourg needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, GDS Moulins Strasbourg is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left GDS Moulins Strasbourg vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on GDS Moulins Strasbourg ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of GDS Moulins Strasbourg still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Food Processing industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though GDS Moulins Strasbourg has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring in Food Processing industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of GDS Moulins Strasbourg is just above the Food Processing 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.
GDS Moulins Strasbourg Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of GDS Moulins Strasbourg are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Food Processing industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for GDS Moulins Strasbourg in the Food Processing industry. Now GDS Moulins Strasbourg can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Food Processing 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Food Processing industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 Food Processing industry.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, GDS Moulins Strasbourg can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that GDS Moulins Strasbourg operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Food Processing sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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, GDS Moulins Strasbourg is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. GDS Moulins Strasbourg can utilize new technology in the field of Food Processing industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Food Processing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. GDS Moulins Strasbourg can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. GDS Moulins Strasbourg can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Food Processing industry. This can help GDS Moulins Strasbourg to build a more holistic ecosystem for GDS Moulins Strasbourg products in the Food Processing industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Food Processing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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. GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
Threats GDS Moulins Strasbourg External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of GDS Moulins Strasbourg are -
Environmental challenges
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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. GDS Moulins Strasbourg can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Food Processing 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg.
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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, GDS Moulins Strasbourg may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Food Processing sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that GDS Moulins Strasbourg is facing in Food Processing 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.
Regulatory challenges
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 Food Processing industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 Food Processing industry and other sectors.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 Food Processing industry.
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. GDS Moulins Strasbourg needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Food Processing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg in the Food Processing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Food Processing industry are lowering. It can presents GDS Moulins Strasbourg with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Food Processing sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Food Processing industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. GDS Moulins Strasbourg can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of GDS Moulins Strasbourg Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.