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Synaptics Incorporated SWOT Analysis / Matrix
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SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used by Synaptics Incorporated managers to do a situational analysis of the company . It is a handy technique to map out the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Synaptics Incorporated is facing in its current business environment.
The Synaptics Incorporated is one of the leading companies in its industry. Synaptics Incorporated maintains its prominent 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 organization such as – marketing, finance, operations, management information systems and strategic planning.
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The SWOT Analysis framework helps 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 Synaptics Incorporated 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 core purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that a company can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Synaptics Incorporated strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.
Step by Step Guide to Synaptics Incorporated SWOT Analysis
Strengths of Synaptics Incorporated – Internal Strategic Factors
As one of the leading organizations in its industry, Synaptics Incorporated 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 Synaptics Incorporated are –
Read - Synaptics Incorporated Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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- Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Synaptics Incorporated products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
- Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
- Strong distribution network – Over the years Synaptics Incorporated has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
- 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.
- 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.
- Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
- Strong Free Cash Flow – Synaptics Incorporated has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
- Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Synaptics Incorporated has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Synaptics Incorporated just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
Weakness of Synaptics Incorporated – Internal Strategic Factors
Weakness are the areas where Synaptics Incorporated 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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- 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 Synaptics Incorporated
- High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Synaptics Incorporated has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
- 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.
- Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though Synaptics Incorporated 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. Synaptics Incorporated has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
- Limited success outside core business – Even though Synaptics Incorporated is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present culture.
Opportunities for Synaptics Incorporated – External Strategic Factors
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- 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 Synaptics Incorporated. In the next few years the company can leverage this opportunity by knowing its customer better and serving their needs using big data analytics.
- Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Synaptics Incorporated products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
- Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Synaptics Incorporated’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.
- The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Synaptics Incorporated to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
- The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Synaptics Incorporated to increase its profitability.
- 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 Synaptics Incorporated to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
- 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.
- Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Synaptics Incorporated an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
Threats Synaptics Incorporated Facing - External Strategic Factors
- Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
- Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Synaptics Incorporated in those markets.
- 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.
- Liability laws in different countries are different and Synaptics Incorporated may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.
- Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to Synaptics Incorporated’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.
- Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
- Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Synaptics Incorporated
Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Synaptics Incorporated
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 Synaptics Incorporated
- 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 Synaptics Incorporated
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 Synaptics Incorporated 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 Synaptics Incorporated
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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SWOT Worksheet & Template
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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)
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