Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref (FPEG_p) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Personal & Household Prods.
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref (Germany)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Germany
4. Making a Personal & Household Prods. sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref
Strengths of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Personal & Household Prods. industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref in Personal & Household Prods. industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Personal & Household Prods. 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref is present in almost all the verticals within the Personal & Household Prods. industry. This has provided Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Personal & Household Prods. industry
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Personal & Household Prods. industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref is one of the leading players in the Personal & Household Prods. industry in Germany. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Germany. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management in the Personal & Household Prods. industry
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
Ability to lead change in Personal & Household Prods.
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref is one of the leading players in the Personal & Household Prods. industry in Germany. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Personal & Household Prods. industry in Germany but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Personal & Household Prods. industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
Weaknesses of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Personal & Household Prods. industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Lack of clear differentiation of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref to provide better information regarding Personal & Household Prods. products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Personal & Household Prods. industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Germany, Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ less understanding of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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 Personal & Household Prods. industry using digital technology.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has some of the most successful models in the Personal & Household Prods. industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring in Personal & Household Prods. industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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 Personal & Household Prods. industry.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Personal & Household Prods. industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref to increase its market reach. Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Personal & Household Prods. sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Personal & Household Prods. 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Personal & Household Prods. industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref in the Personal & Household Prods. industry. Now Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can develop new processes and procedures in Personal & Household Prods. 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.
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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Personal & Household Prods. sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Personal & Household Prods. industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref is facing in Personal & Household Prods. sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Personal & Household Prods. sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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 Personal & Household Prods. industry.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Personal & Household Prods. industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Personal & Household Prods. 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.
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. Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref in Personal & Household Prods. industry. The Personal & Household Prods. 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.
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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref in the Personal & Household Prods. sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref
– 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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Personal & Household Prods. industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Personal & Household Prods. industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.