Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

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

The Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. is one of the leading companies in its industry. Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. 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.

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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 enables the managers of the Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. to develop four types of strategies:

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

Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. 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 Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading firms in its industry, Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. 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 Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. are –

Read - Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
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.
Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. 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 Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
Strong dealer community – It has built a culture among distributor & dealers where the dealers not only promote company’s products but also invest in training the sales team to explain to the customer how he/she can extract the maximum benefits out of the products.

Weakness of Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. 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.

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High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
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 Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. are below the industry average.
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 Mountain Province Diamonds Inc.
Organization structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting expansion in adjacent product segments.
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. Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.

Opportunities for Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. – External Strategic Factors

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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 Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. to increase its profitability.
Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. to capture new customers and increase its market share.
Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Mountain Province Diamonds Inc..
The new technology provides an opportunity to Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. 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.
Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Mountain Province Diamonds Inc.’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 Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. in those markets.
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.
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.
Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.
Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to Mountain Province Diamonds Inc.’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.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Mountain Province Diamonds Inc.

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 Mountain Province Diamonds Inc.
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 Mountain Province Diamonds Inc.

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 Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. 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 Mountain Province Diamonds Inc.

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)