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Australian Careers Network Limited SWOT Analysis / Matrix
Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers
SWOT analysis is a vital strategic planning tool that can be used by Australian Careers Network Limited managers to do a situational analysis of the organization . It is an important technique to map out the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Australian Careers Network Limited is facing in its current business environment.
The Australian Careers Network Limited is one of the leading companies in its industry. Australian Careers Network Limited 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 firm 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 enables the managers of the Australian Careers Network Limited 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 an organization can use to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Australian Careers Network Limited strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.
Step by Step Guide to Australian Careers Network Limited SWOT Analysis
Strengths of Australian Careers Network Limited – Internal Strategic Factors
As one of the leading companies in its industry, Australian Careers Network Limited 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 Australian Careers Network Limited are –
Read - Australian Careers Network Limited Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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- Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Australian Careers Network Limited products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
- Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
- 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.
- Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – Australian Careers Network Limited is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.
- Strong Free Cash Flow – Australian Careers Network Limited has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
- Strong distribution network – Over the years Australian Careers Network Limited has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
- Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Australian Careers Network Limited has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Australian Careers Network Limited just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
Weakness of Australian Careers Network Limited – Internal Strategic Factors
Weakness are the areas where Australian Careers Network Limited can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where a company 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 Australian Careers Network Limited is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
- Limited success outside core business – Even though Australian Careers Network Limited is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present culture.
- 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.
- 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 Australian Careers Network Limited
- 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. Australian Careers Network Limited has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
- Need more investment in new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different geographies the company is planning to expand into, Australian Careers Network Limited 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.
- 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 Australian Careers Network Limited is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
Opportunities for Australian Careers Network Limited – 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 Australian Careers Network Limited. In the next few years the company can leverage this opportunity by knowing its customer better and serving their needs using big data analytics.
- Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Australian Careers Network Limited.
- 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 Australian Careers Network Limited in other product categories.
- The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Australian Careers Network Limited 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 Australian Careers Network Limited to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
- Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Australian Careers Network Limited an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
- Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for Australian Careers Network Limited 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.
Threats Australian Careers Network Limited Facing - External Strategic Factors
- Liability laws in different countries are different and Australian Careers Network Limited may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.
- 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 Australian Careers Network Limited’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
- Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Australian Careers Network Limited in those markets.
- New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
- Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Australian Careers Network Limited
- Rising raw material can pose a threat to the Australian Careers Network Limited profitability.
- New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Australian Careers Network Limited
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 Australian Careers Network Limited
- 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 Australian Careers Network Limited
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 Australian Careers Network Limited 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 Australian Careers Network Limited
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)
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