European Metals Holdings Limited SWOT Analysis / Matrix

Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

SWOT analysis is a vital strategic planning tool that can be used by European Metals Holdings Limited 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) European Metals Holdings Limited is facing in its current business environment.

The European Metals Holdings Limited is one of the leading companies in its industry. European Metals Holdings Limited maintains its dominant position in market by carefully 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 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 European Metals Holdings 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 European Metals Holdings Limited strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to European Metals Holdings Limited SWOT Analysis

Strengths of European Metals Holdings Limited – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading firms in its industry, European Metals Holdings 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 European Metals Holdings Limited are –

Read - European Metals Holdings Limited Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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• 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 developing new products – product innovation.
• 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.
• Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. European Metals Holdings Limited 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.
• Strong Free Cash Flow – European Metals Holdings Limited has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
• Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – European Metals Holdings Limited is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.
• 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.
• Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to European Metals Holdings Limited products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.

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Weakness of European Metals Holdings Limited – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where European Metals Holdings 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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• Limited success outside core business – Even though European Metals Holdings Limited is one of the leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product segments with its present 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.
• 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.
• The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of European Metals Holdings Limited are below the industry average.
• 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.
• High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry European Metals Holdings Limited has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
• 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 European Metals Holdings Limited

Opportunities for European Metals Holdings Limited – External Strategic Factors

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• Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided European Metals Holdings Limited 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 European Metals Holdings Limited to increase its profitability.
• 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 European Metals Holdings 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.
• Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for European Metals Holdings Limited to capture new customers and increase its market share.
• 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 European Metals Holdings Limited 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.
• New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the European Metals Holdings Limited . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
• The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable European Metals Holdings Limited to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.

Threats European Metals Holdings Limited Facing - External Strategic Factors

• Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to European Metals Holdings Limited’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
• New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
• Liability laws in different countries are different and European Metals Holdings Limited may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.
• Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for European Metals Holdings Limited   in those markets.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for European Metals Holdings 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 European Metals Holdings 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 European Metals Holdings 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 European Metals Holdings 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 European Metals Holdings 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)