B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

SWOT analysis is a vital strategic planning tool that can be used by B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. managers to do a situational analysis of the organization . It is an important technique to evalauate the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. is facing in its current business environment.

The B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. is one of the leading organizatations in its industry. B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. maintains its prominent position in market by critically analyzing and reviewing the SWOT analysis.  SWOT analysis a highly 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 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 B.O.S. Better Online Solutions 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 main purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that a firm can use to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading organizations in its industry, B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. 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 B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. are –

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• Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
• 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.
• Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. B.O.S. Better Online Solutions 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.
• Strong Free Cash Flow – B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
• Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
• Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
• Superb Performance in New Markets – B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. 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.
• Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.

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Weakness of B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. 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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• Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
• 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. B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
• High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry B.O.S. Better Online Solutions 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 B.O.S. Better Online Solutions 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.
• Limited success outside core business – Even though B.O.S. Better Online Solutions 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.
• The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. are below the industry average.

Opportunities for B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. – External Strategic Factors

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• The new technology provides an opportunity to B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. 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.
• The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. to increase its profitability.
• Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
• Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of B.O.S. Better Online Solutions 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.
• 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 B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. 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 B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. in other product categories.
• Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd..
• Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. to capture new customers and increase its market share.

Threats B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. Facing - External Strategic Factors

• No regular supply of innovative products – Over the years the company has developed numerous products but those are often response to the development by other players. Secondly the supply of new products is not regular thus leading to high and low swings in the sales number over period of time.
• Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd.
• Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd.’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
• New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
• Growing strengths of local distributors also presents a threat in some markets as the competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors.
• Rising raw material can pose a threat to the B.O.S. Better Online Solutions Ltd. profitability.
• 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.
• 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.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for B.O.S. Better Online Solutions 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 B.O.S. Better Online Solutions 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 B.O.S. Better Online Solutions 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 B.O.S. Better Online Solutions 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 B.O.S. Better Online Solutions 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)