RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

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

The RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. is one of the leading organizatations in its industry. RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. maintains its dominant 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 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 called SWOT Matrix.

The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix enables the managers of the RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. to develop four types of strategies:

  • SO (strengths-opportunities) Strategies
  • WO (weaknesses-opportunities) Strategies
  • ST (strengths-threats) Strategies
  •  WT (weaknesses-threats) Strategies
RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. swot analysis / matrix

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The main purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that a company can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors


As one of the leading firms in its industry, RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. 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 RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. are –


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  • Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
  • Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
  • Superb Performance in New Markets – RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. has built expertise at entering new markets and making success of them. The expansion has helped the organization to build new revenue stream and diversify the economic cycle risk in the markets it operates in.
  • Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
  • Strong distribution network – Over the years RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
  • Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
  • Strong Free Cash Flow – RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
  • 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 RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors


Weakness are the areas where RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where an organization can improve using SWOT analysis and build on its competitive advantage and strategic positioning.


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  • 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.
  • Investment in Research and Development is below the fastest growing players in the industry. Even though RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. 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.
  • Limited success outside core business – Even though RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present culture.
  • Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
  • 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 RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
  • 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. RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
  • Organization structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting expansion in adjacent product segments.

Opportunities for RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. – External Strategic Factors


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  • Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc..
  • Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of RCI Hospitality Holdings, 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.
  • New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
  • 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 RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc.. 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 RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
  • 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 RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
  • 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 RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. in other product categories.
  • 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.

Threats RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

  • 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.
  • Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc.’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
  • Rising raw material can pose a threat to the RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. profitability.
  • 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.
  • New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
  • 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 .
  • 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 RCI Hospitality Holdings, 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 RCI Hospitality Holdings, 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 RCI Hospitality Holdings, 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 RCI Hospitality Holdings, 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 RCI Hospitality Holdings, 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)