Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

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

The Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. is one of the leading organizatations in its industry. Arcadia Biosciences, 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 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 called SWOT Matrix.

The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix helps the managers of the Arcadia Biosciences, 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 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 Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading companies in its industry, Arcadia Biosciences, 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 Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. are –

Read - Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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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.
• Superb Performance in New Markets – Arcadia Biosciences, 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.
• Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
• Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.
• Strong distribution network – Over the years Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
• Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Arcadia Biosciences, 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 – Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.

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Weakness of Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Arcadia Biosciences, 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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• 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 Arcadia Biosciences, Inc.
• Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work 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 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.
• Organization structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting expansion in adjacent product segments.
• Need more investment in new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different geographies the company is planning to expand into, Arcadia Biosciences, 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.
• 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. Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.

Opportunities for Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. – External Strategic Factors

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• Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. to capture new customers and increase its market share.
• 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.
• Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Arcadia Biosciences, 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.
• Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
• Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
• The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. 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 Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
• New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.

Threats Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

• Growing strengths of local distributors also presents a threat in some markets as the competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors.
• The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.
• Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
• New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
• Rising raw material can pose a threat to the Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. profitability.
• New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
• Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Arcadia Biosciences, Inc.
• Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Arcadia Biosciences, Inc.   in those markets.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Arcadia Biosciences, 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 Arcadia Biosciences, 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 Arcadia Biosciences, 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 Arcadia Biosciences, 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 Arcadia Biosciences, 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)