Progress Werk Oberkirch (PWOG) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Auto & Truck Parts
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Progress Werk Oberkirch (Germany)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Progress Werk Oberkirch is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Progress Werk Oberkirch
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Progress Werk Oberkirch can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Progress Werk Oberkirch, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Progress Werk Oberkirch can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Progress Werk Oberkirch
2. Improving business portfolio management of Progress Werk Oberkirch
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Germany
4. Making a Auto & Truck Parts sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Progress Werk Oberkirch
Strengths of Progress Werk Oberkirch | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Progress Werk Oberkirch are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 recruit top talent
– Progress Werk Oberkirch is one of the leading players in the Auto & Truck Parts 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Auto & Truck Parts industry
– Progress Werk Oberkirch has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Progress Werk Oberkirch to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Auto & Truck Parts industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Progress Werk Oberkirch to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Progress Werk Oberkirch
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Progress Werk Oberkirch does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Progress Werk Oberkirch in the Consumer Cyclical sector have low bargaining power. Progress Werk Oberkirch has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Progress Werk Oberkirch to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Progress Werk Oberkirch is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Progress Werk Oberkirch emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Progress Werk Oberkirch comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Auto & Truck Parts 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
– Progress Werk Oberkirch has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Progress Werk Oberkirch to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Progress Werk Oberkirch has one of the best training and development program in Consumer 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Progress Werk Oberkirch in Auto & Truck Parts industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Auto & Truck Parts industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Progress Werk Oberkirch digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Progress Werk Oberkirch 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.
Ability to lead change in Auto & Truck Parts
– Progress Werk Oberkirch is one of the leading players in the Auto & Truck Parts industry in Germany. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Auto & Truck Parts industry in Germany but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Progress Werk Oberkirch in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses of Progress Werk Oberkirch | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Progress Werk Oberkirch are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Progress Werk Oberkirch needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Auto & Truck Parts industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Progress Werk Oberkirch can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Progress Werk Oberkirch is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ less understanding of Progress Werk Oberkirch strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 bargaining power of channel partners in Auto & Truck Parts industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Germany, Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Auto & Truck Parts industry.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Progress Werk Oberkirch has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Auto & Truck Parts industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Progress Werk Oberkirch, in the dynamic environment of Auto & Truck Parts industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Progress Werk Oberkirch has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Auto & Truck Parts industry, Progress Werk Oberkirch 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Progress Werk Oberkirch, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Auto & Truck Parts 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.
Skills based hiring in Auto & Truck Parts industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Progress Werk Oberkirch ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Progress Werk Oberkirch still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Auto & Truck Parts industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Progress Werk Oberkirch has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Progress Werk Oberkirch supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Progress Werk Oberkirch is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Progress Werk Oberkirch vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Progress Werk Oberkirch has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Auto & Truck Parts industry over the last five years. Progress Werk Oberkirch 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.
Progress Werk Oberkirch Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Progress Werk Oberkirch 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Auto & Truck Parts industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Progress Werk Oberkirch 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. Progress Werk Oberkirch 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.
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. Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Progress Werk Oberkirch in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Auto & Truck Parts industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Progress Werk Oberkirch to increase its market reach. Progress Werk Oberkirch 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Progress Werk Oberkirch can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Auto & Truck Parts 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 Auto & Truck Parts industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Progress Werk Oberkirch can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Progress Werk Oberkirch has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Auto & Truck Parts sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Progress Werk Oberkirch to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Progress Werk Oberkirch to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Progress Werk Oberkirch to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Progress Werk Oberkirch can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Progress Werk Oberkirch has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Auto & Truck Parts industry. This can help Progress Werk Oberkirch to build a more holistic ecosystem for Progress Werk Oberkirch products in the Auto & Truck Parts industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Progress Werk Oberkirch to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Progress Werk Oberkirch can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Threats Progress Werk Oberkirch External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Progress Werk Oberkirch are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Progress Werk Oberkirch 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.
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 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Progress Werk Oberkirch may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Auto & Truck Parts sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Progress Werk Oberkirch has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Auto & Truck Parts industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Progress Werk Oberkirch needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Auto & Truck Parts 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.
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 Progress Werk Oberkirch in the Auto & Truck Parts sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Auto & Truck Parts industry and other sectors.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Progress Werk Oberkirch is facing in Auto & Truck Parts sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Auto & Truck Parts industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Progress Werk Oberkirch prominent markets.
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 Progress Werk Oberkirch business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Auto & Truck Parts industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Progress Werk Oberkirch can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Progress Werk Oberkirch 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Progress Werk Oberkirch Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Progress Werk Oberkirch 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 Progress Werk Oberkirch needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.