A-Cap Resources Limited SWOT Analysis / Matrix

Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

SWOT analysis is a vital strategic planning tool that can be used by A-Cap Resources Limited managers to do a situational analysis of the company . It is a useful technique to evalauate the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) A-Cap Resources Limited is facing in its current business environment.

The A-Cap Resources Limited is one of the leading firms in its industry. A-Cap Resources Limited 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 firm 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 A-Cap Resources 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 primary purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that an organization can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect A-Cap Resources Limited strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to A-Cap Resources Limited SWOT Analysis

Strengths of A-Cap Resources Limited – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading companies in its industry, A-Cap Resources Limited 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 A-Cap Resources Limited are –

Read - A-Cap Resources Limited Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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• Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years A-Cap Resources Limited has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of A-Cap Resources Limited just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
• 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.
• 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.
• Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to A-Cap Resources Limited products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
• Strong distribution network – Over the years A-Cap Resources Limited has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
• Strong Free Cash Flow – A-Cap Resources Limited 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 A-Cap Resources Limited – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where A-Cap Resources 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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• 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.
• 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 A-Cap Resources Limited is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
• 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 A-Cap Resources Limited
• 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.
• High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry A-Cap Resources Limited has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
• Limited success outside core business – Even though A-Cap Resources Limited 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 A-Cap Resources Limited – External Strategic Factors

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• Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of A-Cap Resources Limited products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
• The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable A-Cap Resources Limited to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
• 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 A-Cap Resources 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.
• The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as A-Cap Resources Limited to increase its profitability.
• The new technology provides an opportunity to A-Cap Resources Limited 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.
• 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 A-Cap Resources Limited in other product categories.
• Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for A-Cap Resources Limited to capture new customers and increase its market share.
• Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided A-Cap Resources Limited an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.

Threats A-Cap Resources Limited Facing - External Strategic Factors

• 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.
• New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
• 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.
• 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 A-Cap Resources Limited 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.
• 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 A-Cap Resources Limited

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for A-Cap Resources 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 A-Cap Resources 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 A-Cap Resources 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 A-Cap Resources 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 A-Cap Resources 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)