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 – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, 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 -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – GDS Moulins Strasbourg staying ahead in the Food Processing industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of GDS Moulins Strasbourg comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Food Processing 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.
High brand equity
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled GDS Moulins Strasbourg to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Food Processing industry
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled GDS Moulins Strasbourg to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Food Processing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped GDS Moulins Strasbourg to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
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.
Strong track record of project management in the Food Processing industry
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
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.
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.
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.
Diverse revenue streams
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg is present in almost all the verticals within the Food Processing industry. This has provided GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
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.
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 -
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.
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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, GDS Moulins Strasbourg has high operating costs in the Food Processing industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract GDS Moulins Strasbourg lucrative customers.
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.
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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, GDS Moulins Strasbourg is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help GDS Moulins Strasbourg to provide better information regarding Food Processing products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of France, GDS Moulins Strasbourg needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Food Processing industry, GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Loyalty marketing
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
Manufacturing automation
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Food Processing 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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.
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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
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 -
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.
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
– 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.
Increasing wage structure of GDS Moulins Strasbourg
– 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg.
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. GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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.
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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, GDS Moulins Strasbourg 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 GDS Moulins Strasbourg prominent markets.
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. GDS Moulins Strasbourg needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Food Processing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.