Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

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SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used by Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. managers to do a situational analysis of the company . It is a useful technique to evalauate the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. is facing in its current business environment.

The Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. is one of the leading organizatations in its industry. Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. 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 company 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 Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. 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 an organization can use to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading organizations in its industry, Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. has numerous strengths that help 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 Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. are –

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• Strong Free Cash Flow – Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
• Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. 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 Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
• Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. 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.
• Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.
• Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
• Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
• 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.

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Weakness of Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. 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.
• Days inventory is high compare to the competitors – making the company raise more capital to invest in the channel. This can impact the long term growth of Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd.
• Limited success outside core business – Even though Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present culture.
• 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.
• High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
• Investment in Research and Development is below the fastest growing players in the industry. Even though Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. is spending above the industry average on Research and Development, it has not been able to compete with the leading players in the industry in terms of innovation. It has come across as a mature firm looking forward to bring out products based on tested features in the market.
• The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. are below the industry average.

Opportunities for Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. – External Strategic Factors

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• Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. to capture new customers and increase its market share.
• New customers from online channel – Over the past few years the company has invested vast sum of money into the online platform. This investment has opened new sales channel for Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd.. In the next few years the company can leverage this opportunity by knowing its customer better and serving their needs using big data analytics.
• Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
• The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
• Organization’s core competencies can be a success in similar other products field. A comparative example could be - GE healthcare research helped it in developing better Oil drilling machines.
• 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 Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
• Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd.’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 Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. products by the state as well as federal government contractors.

Threats Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. Facing - External Strategic Factors

• New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
• Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd.   in those markets.
• Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
• Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
• Growing strengths of local distributors also presents a threat in some markets as the competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors.
• 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.
• 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.
• The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd.

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 Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd.
• 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 Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd.

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 Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. 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 Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd.

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

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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)