Astrotech Corporation SWOT Analysis / Matrix

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SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used by Astrotech Corporation managers to do a situational analysis of the firm . It is a useful technique to analyze the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Astrotech Corporation is facing in its current business environment.

The Astrotech Corporation is one of the leading organizatations in its industry. Astrotech Corporation maintains its prominent position in market by critically analyzing and reviewing the SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis an immensenly interactive process and requires effective coordination among various departments within the firm such as – marketing, finance, operations, management information systems and strategic planning.

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The SWOT Analysis framework facilitates 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 enables the managers of the Astrotech Corporation to develop four types of strategies:

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

Astrotech Corporation swot analysis / matrix

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The core purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that a company can use to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Astrotech Corporation strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Astrotech Corporation SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Astrotech Corporation – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading organizations in its industry, Astrotech Corporation 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 Astrotech Corporation are –

Read - Astrotech Corporation Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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High level of customer satisfaction – the company with its dedicated customer relationship management department has able to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction among present customers and good brand equity among the potential customers.
Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Astrotech Corporation products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
Strong distribution network – Over the years Astrotech Corporation has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
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.
Strong Free Cash Flow – Astrotech Corporation has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Astrotech Corporation has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Astrotech Corporation just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.

Weakness of Astrotech Corporation – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Astrotech Corporation can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where a company can improve using SWOT analysis and build on its competitive advantage and strategic positioning.

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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.
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. Astrotech Corporation has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Astrotech Corporation are below the industry average.
Not very good at product demand forecasting leading to higher rate of missed opportunities compare to its competitors. One of the reason why the days inventory is high compare to its competitors is that Astrotech Corporation is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
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.
Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though Astrotech Corporation is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
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.

Opportunities for Astrotech Corporation – External Strategic Factors

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New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Astrotech Corporation . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
The new technology provides an opportunity to Astrotech Corporation 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.
Stable free cash flow provides opportunities to invest in adjacent product segments. With more cash in bank the company can invest in new technologies as well as in new products segments. This should open a window of opportunity for Astrotech Corporation in other product categories.
Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Astrotech Corporation products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
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 Astrotech Corporation to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Astrotech Corporation.
Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Astrotech Corporation an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Astrotech Corporation’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.

Threats Astrotech Corporation Facing - External Strategic Factors

Rising raw material can pose a threat to the Astrotech Corporation profitability.
As the company is operating in numerous countries it is exposed to currency fluctuations especially given the volatile political climate in number of markets across the world.
Liability laws in different countries are different and Astrotech Corporation may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.
New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
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.
Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Astrotech Corporation
The demand of the highly profitable products is seasonal in nature and any unlikely event during the peak season may impact the profitability of the company in short to medium term.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Astrotech Corporation

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 Astrotech Corporation
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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Astrotech Corporation

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 Astrotech Corporation 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 Astrotech Corporation

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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Example of Weighted SWOT Analysis

You can email us to get an example document of Weighted SWOT analysis.

SWOT Worksheet & Template

If you like to do your own SWOT analysis or want to make your own Weighted SWOT SWOT matrix then feel free to download Fern Fort University SWOT Analysis Template.

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)