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Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust SWOT Analysis / Matrix
Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers
SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used by Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust managers to do a situational analysis of the firm . It is a useful technique to map out the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust is facing in its current business environment.
The Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust is one of the leading firms in its industry. Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust maintains its dominant position in market by carefully 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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Check out- Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust PESTEL / PEST & Environment Analysis
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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 enables the managers of the Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust 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 main purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that a firm can use to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.
Step by Step Guide to Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust SWOT Analysis
Strengths of Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust – Internal Strategic Factors
As one of the leading organizations in its industry, Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust 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 Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust are –
Read - Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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- Strong Free Cash Flow – Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
- Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust 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.
- Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
- Superb Performance in New Markets – Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust 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.
- Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
- 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.
- Strong distribution network – Over the years Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
Weakness of Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust – Internal Strategic Factors
Weakness are the areas where Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust 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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- Organization structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting expansion in adjacent product segments.
- 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. Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
- The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust are below the industry average.
- Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
- High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust 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 Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present culture.
- Investment in Research and Development is below the fastest growing players in the industry. Even though Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust 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.
Opportunities for Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust – External Strategic Factors
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- Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust.
- The new technology provides an opportunity to Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust 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.
- The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
- Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust’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.
- New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
- Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
- Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust to capture new customers and increase its market share.
- 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 Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust in other product categories.
Threats Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust Facing - External Strategic Factors
- Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
- Liability laws in different countries are different and Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.
- 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.
- Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
- 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.
- 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.
- Growing strengths of local distributors also presents a threat in some markets as the competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors.
Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust
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 Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust
- 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 Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust
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 Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust 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 Smart Abs Series 2016-1 Trust
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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