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 energy prices, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, 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 -
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.
High brand equity
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
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.
Innovation driven organization
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref is one of the most innovative firm in Personal & Household Prods. sector.
Training and development
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
Organizational Resilience of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref staying ahead in the Personal & Household Prods. industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Personal & Household Prods. industry over the last five years. Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Personal & Household Prods. 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.
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.
High dependence on Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Personal & Household Prods. industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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.
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 -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Loyalty marketing
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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.
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.
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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can utilize new technology in the field of Personal & Household Prods. industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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.
Manufacturing automation
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Personal & Household Prods. sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Personal & Household Prods. industry. This can help Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref to build a more holistic ecosystem for Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref products in the Personal & Household Prods. industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 -
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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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. Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Personal & Household Prods. industry.
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.
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.
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 Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fuchs Petrolub AG VZO Pref 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 Personal & Household Prods. industry and other sectors.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
