Coca-Cola Hbc Ag SWOT Analysis / Matrix

Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

SWOT analysis is a vital strategic planning tool that can be used by Coca-Cola Hbc Ag managers to do a situational analysis of the company . It is an important technique to understand the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Coca-Cola Hbc Ag is facing in its current business environment.

The Coca-Cola Hbc Ag is one of the leading companies in its industry. Coca-Cola Hbc Ag maintains its prominent 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.

Order Now - Coca-Cola Hbc Ag SWOT Analysis
Check out- Coca-Cola Hbc Ag PESTEL / PEST & Environment Analysis
Article continues after advertisement

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 called SWOT Matrix.

The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix helps the managers of the Coca-Cola Hbc Ag 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 company can use to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Coca-Cola Hbc Ag strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Coca-Cola Hbc Ag SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Coca-Cola Hbc Ag – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading firms in its industry, Coca-Cola Hbc Ag 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 Coca-Cola Hbc Ag are –

Read - Coca-Cola Hbc Ag Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
Article continues after advertisement

Strong Free Cash Flow – Coca-Cola Hbc Ag has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Coca-Cola Hbc Ag has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Coca-Cola Hbc Ag just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
Strong distribution network – Over the years Coca-Cola Hbc Ag has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
Superb Performance in New Markets – Coca-Cola Hbc Ag 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.
Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
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.
Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – Coca-Cola Hbc Ag is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.

Weakness of Coca-Cola Hbc Ag – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Coca-Cola Hbc Ag 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.

Article continues after advertisement

Organization structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting expansion in adjacent product segments.
The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Coca-Cola Hbc Ag are below the industry average.
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 Coca-Cola Hbc Ag
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 Coca-Cola Hbc Ag has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
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.
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 Coca-Cola Hbc Ag is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.

Opportunities for Coca-Cola Hbc Ag – External Strategic Factors

Article continues after advertisement

Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Coca-Cola Hbc Ag 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 Coca-Cola Hbc Ag 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 Coca-Cola Hbc Ag. 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 market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Coca-Cola Hbc Ag 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 Coca-Cola Hbc Ag’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.
Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Coca-Cola Hbc Ag.
New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Coca-Cola Hbc Ag . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
The new technology provides an opportunity to Coca-Cola Hbc Ag 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.

Threats Coca-Cola Hbc Ag 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.
New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.
Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
Liability laws in different countries are different and Coca-Cola Hbc Ag 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 Coca-Cola Hbc Ag in those markets.
Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to Coca-Cola Hbc Ag’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income 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.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Coca-Cola Hbc Ag

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 Coca-Cola Hbc Ag
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.

Article continues after advertisement

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Coca-Cola Hbc Ag

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 Coca-Cola Hbc Ag 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 Coca-Cola Hbc Ag

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.

Buy Custom Essay and Term Paper on SWOT Analysis / Matrix , Weighted SWOT Analysis of Coca-Cola Hbc Ag

Example of Weighted SWOT Analysis

You can email us to get an example document of Weighted SWOT analysis.

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)