Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand (ARDPa) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand (France)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc

---

---

---

---

Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand
2. Improving business portfolio management of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in France
4. Making a Retail (Specialty) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand

---

Strengths of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand are -

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Retail (Specialty) industry

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Retail (Specialty) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Retail (Specialty) 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand is one of the most innovative firm in Retail (Specialty) sector.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand is one of the leading players in the Retail (Specialty) 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.

High brand equity

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Strong track record of project management in the Retail (Specialty) industry

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Analytics focus

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 Retail (Specialty) 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

- Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Ability to lead change in Retail (Specialty)

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand is one of the leading players in the Retail (Specialty) industry in France. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Retail (Specialty) industry in France but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Retail (Specialty) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

---

---

Weaknesses of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand are -

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 Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Retail (Specialty) industry over the last five years. Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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.

No frontier risks strategy

– From the 10K / annual statement of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Retail (Specialty) 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.

Need for greater diversity

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Retail (Specialty) industry, Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 bargaining power of channel partners in Retail (Specialty) industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in France, Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 Retail (Specialty) industry.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Retail (Specialty) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand is planning to shift buying processes online.

Skills based hiring in Retail (Specialty) industry

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 dependence on Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Retail (Specialty) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand has some of the most successful models in the Retail (Specialty) industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the Retail (Specialty) industry using digital technology.

---

Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand are -

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 Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 Retail (Specialty) industry.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand to increase its market reach. Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Retail (Specialty) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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. Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Retail (Specialty) 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.

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. Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Retail (Specialty) industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Loyalty marketing

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Retail (Specialty) sector.

Developing new processes and practices

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand can develop new processes and procedures in Retail (Specialty) 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.

---

Threats Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand are -

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 Retail (Specialty) industry and other sectors.

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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand in Retail (Specialty) industry. The Retail (Specialty) 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand is facing in Retail (Specialty) sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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 Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Retail (Specialty) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Retail (Specialty) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Retail (Specialty) 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Specialty) industry are lowering. It can presents Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Specialty) sector.

Regulatory challenges

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 Retail (Specialty) industry regulations.

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 Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand in the Retail (Specialty) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Environmental challenges

– Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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. Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Retail (Specialty) industry.

Increasing wage structure of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand

– 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 Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand.

---

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand 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 Les Motocycles Ardoin Saint Amand needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

--- ---