UMT United Mobility (UMD) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Software & Programming
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for UMT United Mobility (Germany)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , UMT United Mobility is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of UMT United Mobility
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that UMT United Mobility can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the UMT United Mobility, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which UMT United Mobility 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 UMT United Mobility can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of UMT United Mobility
2. Improving business portfolio management of UMT United Mobility
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Germany
4. Making a Software & Programming sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of UMT United Mobility
Strengths of UMT United Mobility | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of UMT United Mobility are -
Learning organization
- UMT United Mobility 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 UMT United Mobility is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at UMT United Mobility emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– UMT United Mobility is one of the leading players in the Software & Programming 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that UMT United Mobility 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.
Analytics focus
– UMT United Mobility is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the Software & Programming industry. The technology infrastructure of Germany is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of UMT United Mobility in Software & Programming industry is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– UMT United Mobility is one of the most innovative firm in Software & Programming sector.
Strong track record of project management in the Software & Programming industry
– UMT United Mobility is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Software & Programming industry
– UMT United Mobility has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled UMT United Mobility to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Software & Programming industry. The sustainable margins have also helped UMT United Mobility to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Software & Programming
– UMT United Mobility is one of the leading players in the Software & Programming industry in Germany. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Software & Programming industry in Germany but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled UMT United Mobility in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of UMT United Mobility comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Software & Programming 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the UMT United Mobility 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– UMT United Mobility has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. UMT United Mobility 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.
Weaknesses of UMT United Mobility | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of UMT United Mobility are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, UMT United Mobility is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help UMT United Mobility to provide better information regarding Software & Programming products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, UMT United Mobility has high operating costs in the Software & Programming industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract UMT United Mobility lucrative customers.
Employees’ less understanding of UMT United Mobility strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of UMT United Mobility 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at UMT United Mobility, in the dynamic environment of Software & Programming industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. UMT United Mobility has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Software & Programming industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Germany, UMT United Mobility 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 Software & Programming industry.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Software & Programming industry, UMT United Mobility needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High 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 UMT United Mobility supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, UMT United Mobility is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left UMT United Mobility vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of UMT United Mobility is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Software & Programming industry, but UMT United Mobility needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help UMT United Mobility to focus more on services in the Software & Programming industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on UMT United Mobility ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of UMT United Mobility still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Software & Programming industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though UMT United Mobility has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, UMT United Mobility has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Software & Programming industry over the last five years. UMT United Mobility 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
UMT United Mobility has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Software & Programming industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
UMT United Mobility Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of UMT United Mobility are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for UMT United Mobility in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Software & Programming industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, UMT United Mobility 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 UMT United Mobility to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 UMT United Mobility 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– UMT United Mobility 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.
Buying journey improvements
– UMT United Mobility can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Software & Programming 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for UMT United Mobility 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, UMT United Mobility is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. UMT United Mobility can utilize new technology in the field of Software & Programming industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Software & Programming industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. UMT United Mobility 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. UMT United Mobility 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, UMT United Mobility can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that UMT United Mobility operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Software & Programming sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, UMT United Mobility 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for UMT United Mobility 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 UMT United Mobility to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at UMT United Mobility 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 Software & Programming industry.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Software & Programming industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. UMT United Mobility can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats UMT United Mobility External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of UMT United Mobility are -
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 UMT United Mobility.
Environmental challenges
– UMT United Mobility 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. UMT United Mobility can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Software & Programming industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, UMT United Mobility may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Software & Programming sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on UMT United Mobility 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 Software & Programming industry and other sectors.
Regulatory challenges
– UMT United Mobility 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 Software & Programming industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– UMT United Mobility has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Software & Programming industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, UMT United Mobility needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Software & Programming 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.
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 UMT United Mobility in the Software & Programming sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Software & Programming industry are lowering. It can presents UMT United Mobility with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Software & Programming sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– UMT United Mobility 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 Software & Programming industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that UMT United Mobility is facing in Software & Programming sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of UMT United Mobility
– 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 UMT United Mobility.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, UMT United Mobility 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 UMT United Mobility prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of UMT United Mobility Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at UMT United Mobility 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 UMT United Mobility 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 UMT United Mobility 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 UMT United Mobility 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 UMT United Mobility needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.