AS Creation Tapeten (ACWNn) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Paper & Paper Products
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for AS Creation Tapeten (Germany)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , AS Creation Tapeten is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of AS Creation Tapeten
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that AS Creation Tapeten can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the AS Creation Tapeten, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which AS Creation Tapeten 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 AS Creation Tapeten can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of AS Creation Tapeten
2. Improving business portfolio management of AS Creation Tapeten
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Germany
4. Making a Paper & Paper Products sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of AS Creation Tapeten
Strengths of AS Creation Tapeten | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of AS Creation Tapeten are -
Organizational Resilience of AS Creation Tapeten
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing AS Creation Tapeten does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– AS Creation Tapeten is present in almost all the verticals within the Paper & Paper Products industry. This has provided AS Creation Tapeten 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of AS Creation Tapeten in Paper & Paper Products industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the AS Creation Tapeten 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.
Innovation driven organization
– AS Creation Tapeten is one of the most innovative firm in Paper & Paper Products sector.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that AS Creation Tapeten 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.
High brand equity
– AS Creation Tapeten has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled AS Creation Tapeten to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of AS Creation Tapeten comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Paper & Paper Products 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of AS Creation Tapeten in the Basic Materials sector have low bargaining power. AS Creation Tapeten has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps AS Creation Tapeten to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– AS Creation Tapeten has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. AS Creation Tapeten 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– AS Creation Tapeten is one of the leading players in the Paper & Paper Products 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 Paper & Paper Products industry
– AS Creation Tapeten is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses of AS Creation Tapeten | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of AS Creation Tapeten are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, AS Creation Tapeten is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help AS Creation Tapeten to provide better information regarding Paper & Paper Products products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though AS Creation Tapeten has some of the most successful models in the Paper & Paper Products industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. AS Creation Tapeten should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that AS Creation Tapeten needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Paper & Paper Products industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at AS Creation Tapeten can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as AS Creation Tapeten is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of AS Creation Tapeten, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Paper & Paper Products 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.
High dependence on AS Creation Tapeten ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of AS Creation Tapeten still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Paper & Paper Products industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though AS Creation Tapeten has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring in Paper & Paper Products industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at AS Creation Tapeten 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, AS Creation Tapeten has high operating costs in the Paper & Paper Products industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract AS Creation Tapeten lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Paper & Paper Products industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Germany, AS Creation Tapeten 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 Paper & Paper Products industry.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Germany, AS Creation Tapeten needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 AS Creation Tapeten supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, AS Creation Tapeten is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left AS Creation Tapeten vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, AS Creation Tapeten 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 Paper & Paper Products industry using digital technology.
AS Creation Tapeten Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of AS Creation Tapeten are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for AS Creation Tapeten in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Paper & Paper Products industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for AS Creation Tapeten 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, AS Creation Tapeten 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 AS Creation Tapeten to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– AS Creation Tapeten 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.
Buying journey improvements
– AS Creation Tapeten can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Paper & Paper Products 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– AS Creation Tapeten has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Paper & Paper Products sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled AS Creation Tapeten to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help AS Creation Tapeten to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Paper & Paper Products industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. AS Creation Tapeten 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. AS Creation Tapeten 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, AS Creation Tapeten is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. AS Creation Tapeten can utilize new technology in the field of Paper & Paper Products industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, AS Creation Tapeten can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Paper & Paper Products industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. AS Creation Tapeten can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 AS Creation Tapeten 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.
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. AS Creation Tapeten can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for AS Creation Tapeten 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 AS Creation Tapeten to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats AS Creation Tapeten External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of AS Creation Tapeten are -
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Paper & Paper Products industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. AS Creation Tapeten 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
– AS Creation Tapeten has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Paper & Paper Products industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, AS Creation Tapeten needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Paper & Paper Products 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– AS Creation Tapeten 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.
Increasing wage structure of AS Creation Tapeten
– 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 AS Creation Tapeten.
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 AS Creation Tapeten in the Paper & Paper Products sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Paper & Paper Products industry are lowering. It can presents AS Creation Tapeten with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Paper & Paper Products sector.
Environmental challenges
– AS Creation Tapeten 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. AS Creation Tapeten can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Paper & Paper Products industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, AS Creation Tapeten 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 AS Creation Tapeten 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 AS Creation Tapeten business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on AS Creation Tapeten 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 Paper & Paper Products industry and other sectors.
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 AS Creation Tapeten.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of AS Creation Tapeten Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at AS Creation Tapeten 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 AS Creation Tapeten 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 AS Creation Tapeten 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 AS Creation Tapeten 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 AS Creation Tapeten needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.