Electronics for Imaging, Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

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

The Electronics for Imaging, Inc. is one of the leading organizatations in its industry. Electronics for Imaging, Inc. maintains its dominant 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 known as SWOT Matrix.

The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix helps the managers of the Electronics for Imaging, Inc. 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 primary purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that an organization can use to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Electronics for Imaging, Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Electronics for Imaging, Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Electronics for Imaging, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading firms in its industry, Electronics for Imaging, 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 Electronics for Imaging, Inc. are –

Read - Electronics for Imaging, Inc. Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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• Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – Electronics for Imaging, Inc. is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.
• Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. Electronics for Imaging, Inc. 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.
• 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.
• Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Electronics for Imaging, Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Electronics for Imaging, Inc. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
• Strong Free Cash Flow – Electronics for Imaging, Inc. has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
• Superb Performance in New Markets – Electronics for Imaging, 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 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.
• 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.

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Weakness of Electronics for Imaging, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Electronics for Imaging, 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.
• Need more investment in new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different geographies the company is planning to expand into, Electronics for Imaging, Inc. needs to put more money in technology to integrate the processes across the board. Right now the investment in technologies is not at par with the vision of the company.
• 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 Electronics for Imaging, Inc.
• Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though Electronics for Imaging, Inc. is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
• Investment in Research and Development is below the fastest growing players in the industry. Even though Electronics for Imaging, 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.
• 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. Electronics for Imaging, 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 Electronics for Imaging, Inc. – External Strategic Factors

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• New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Electronics for Imaging, 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 Electronics for Imaging, 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 Electronics for Imaging, Inc. to capture new customers and increase its 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 Electronics for Imaging, Inc. to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
• Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Electronics for Imaging, Inc. products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
• 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.
• The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Electronics for Imaging, Inc. to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
• Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Electronics for Imaging, Inc..

Threats Electronics for Imaging, Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

• 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.
• Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to Electronics for Imaging, Inc.’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
• New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
• Growing strengths of local distributors also presents a threat in some markets as the competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors.
• New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
• 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 Electronics for Imaging, Inc.
• Liability laws in different countries are different and Electronics for Imaging, Inc. may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Electronics for Imaging, 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 Electronics for Imaging, 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 Electronics for Imaging, 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 Electronics for Imaging, 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 Electronics for Imaging, 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)