Roadrunner Transportation Systems SWOT Analysis / Matrix

Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

SWOT analysis is a vital strategic planning tool that can be used by Roadrunner Transportation Systems managers to do a situational analysis of the company . It is an important technique to analyze the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Roadrunner Transportation Systems is facing in its current business environment.

The Roadrunner Transportation Systems is one of the leading companies in its industry. Roadrunner Transportation Systems maintains its prominent position in market by carefully analyzing and reviewing the SWOT analysis.  SWOT analysis an immensenly interactive process and requires effective coordination among various departments within the organization such as – marketing, finance, operations, management information systems and strategic planning.

The SWOT Analysis framework enables an organization to identify the internal strategic factors such as -strengths and weaknesses, & external strategic factors such as - opportunities and threats. It leads to a 2X2 matrix – also known as SWOT Matrix.

The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix helps the managers of the Roadrunner Transportation Systems to develop four types of strategies:

• SO (strengths-opportunities) Strategies
• WO (weaknesses-opportunities) Strategies
• ST (strengths-threats) Strategies
•  WT (weaknesses-threats) Strategies

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The central purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that a company can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Roadrunner Transportation Systems strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Roadrunner Transportation Systems SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Roadrunner Transportation Systems – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading companies in its industry, Roadrunner Transportation Systems has numerous strengths that enable it to thrive in the market place. These strengths not only help it to protect the market share in existing markets but also help in penetrating new markets. Based on Fern Fort University extensive research – some of the strengths of Roadrunner Transportation Systems are –

• Strong Free Cash Flow – Roadrunner Transportation Systems has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
• Successful track record of integrating complimentary firms through mergers & acquisition. It has successfully integrated number of technology companies in the past few years to streamline its operations and to build a reliable supply chain.
• Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Roadrunner Transportation Systems products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
• Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
• Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. Roadrunner Transportation Systems is investing huge resources in training and development of its employees resulting in a workforce that is not only highly skilled but also motivated to achieve more.
• Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Roadrunner Transportation Systems has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Roadrunner Transportation Systems just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
• Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
• Strong distribution network – Over the years Roadrunner Transportation Systems has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.

Weakness of Roadrunner Transportation Systems – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Roadrunner Transportation Systems can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where a firm can improve using SWOT analysis and build on its competitive advantage and strategic positioning.

• Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though Roadrunner Transportation Systems is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
• High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Roadrunner Transportation Systems has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
• The marketing of the products left a lot to be desired. Even though the product is a success in terms of sale but its positioning and unique selling proposition is not clearly defined which can lead to the attacks in this segment from the competitors.
• There are gaps in the product range sold by the company. This lack of choice can give a new competitor a foothold in the market.
• The company has not being able to tackle the challenges present by the new entrants in the segment and has lost small market share in the niche categories. Roadrunner Transportation Systems has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
• Financial planning is not done properly and efficiently. The current asset ratio and liquid asset ratios suggest that the company can use the cash more efficiently than what it is doing at present.
• Limited success outside core business – Even though Roadrunner Transportation Systems is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present culture.

Opportunities for Roadrunner Transportation Systems – External Strategic Factors

• Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Roadrunner Transportation Systems’s products thus providing an opportunity to the company - either to boost its profitability or pass on the benefits to the customers to gain market share.
• Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Roadrunner Transportation Systems products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
• The new technology provides an opportunity to Roadrunner Transportation Systems to practices differentiated pricing strategy in the new market. It will enable the firm to maintain its loyal customers with great service and lure new customers through other value oriented propositions.
• New environmental policies – The new opportunities will create a level playing field for all the players in the industry. It represent a great opportunity for Roadrunner Transportation Systems to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
• The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Roadrunner Transportation Systems to increase its profitability.
• New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Roadrunner Transportation Systems . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
• Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Roadrunner Transportation Systems an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
• Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Roadrunner Transportation Systems.

Threats Roadrunner Transportation Systems Facing - External Strategic Factors

• The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.
• New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
• Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to Roadrunner Transportation Systems’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
• Intense competition – Stable profitability has increased the number of players in the industry over last two years which has put downward pressure on not only profitability but also on overall sales.
• Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
• Liability laws in different countries are different and Roadrunner Transportation Systems may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.
• New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
• Rising raw material can pose a threat to the Roadrunner Transportation Systems profitability.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Roadrunner Transportation Systems

Although the SWOT analysis is widely used as a strategic planning tool, the analysis does have its share of limitations.

• Certain capabilities or factors of an organization can be both a strength and weakness at the same time. This is one of the major limitations of SWOT analysis . For example changing environmental regulations can be both a threat to company it can also be an opportunity in a sense that it will enable the company to be on a level playing field or at advantage to competitors if it able to develop the products faster than the competitors.
• SWOT does not show how to achieve a competitive advantage, so it must not be an end in itself.
• The matrix is only a starting point for a discussion on how proposed strategies could be implemented. It provided an evaluation window but not an implementation plan based on strategic competitiveness of Roadrunner Transportation Systems
• SWOT is a static assessment - analysis of status quo with few prospective changes. As circumstances, capabilities, threats, and strategies change, the dynamics of a competitive environment may not be revealed in a single matrix.
• SWOT analysis may lead the firm to overemphasize a single internal or external factor in formulating strategies. There are interrelationships among the key internal and external factors that SWOT does not reveal that may be important in devising strategies.

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Roadrunner Transportation Systems

In light of the above mentioned limitations of the SWOT analysis / matrix, corporate managers decided to provide weightage to each internal strength and weakness of the firm. Organizations also assess the likelihood of events taking place in the coming future and how strong their impact could be on company's performance.

This method is called Weighted SWOT analysis. It is better than doing simplistic SWOT analysis because with Weighted SWOT Analysis Roadrunner Transportation Systems managers can focus on the most critical factors and discount the non-important one. It also solves the long list problem where organizations ends up making a long list but none of the factors deemed too critical.

Limitation of Weighted SWOT analysis of Roadrunner Transportation Systems

This approach also suffers from one major drawback - it focus on individual importance of factor rather than how they are collectively important and impact the business holistically.

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SWOT Worksheet & Template

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References / Citations & Bibliography

• M. E. Porter, Competitive Strategy(New York: Free Press, 1980)
• A. D. Chandler, Strategy and Structure (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1962)
• O. E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies(New York: Free Press, 1975);
• L. Wrigley, Divisional Autonomy and Diversification (PhD, Harvard Business School, 1970)
• R. E. White, Generic Business Strategies, Organizational Context and Performance: An Empirical Investigation, Strategic Management Journal7 (1986)