Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc SWOT Analysis / Matrix

Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

SWOT analysis is a vital strategic planning tool that can be used by Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc managers to do a situational analysis of the organization . It is a useful technique to analyze the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc is facing in its current business environment.

The Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc is one of the leading firms in its industry. Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc 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.


Order Now - Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc SWOT Analysis
Check out- Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc PESTEL / PEST & Environment Analysis
Article continues after advertisement


The SWOT Analysis framework enables 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 enables the managers of the Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc 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 central purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that a firm can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading organizations in its industry, Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc 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 Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc are –

Read - Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
Article continues after advertisement

• Strong Free Cash Flow – Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
• 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 distribution network – Over the years Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
• 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.
• Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
• Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
• Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.

---

Weakness of Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc 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

• The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc are below the industry average.
• 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 Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
• 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 Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc
• High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
• Need more investment in new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different geographies the company is planning to expand into, Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc 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.
• 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.

Opportunities for Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc – External Strategic Factors

Article continues after advertisement

• 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 Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
• The new technology provides an opportunity to Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc 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.
• 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.
• Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
• The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
• The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc to increase its profitability.
• Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc to capture new customers and increase its 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 Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc.

Threats Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc Facing - External Strategic Factors

• The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.
• Liability laws in different countries are different and Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.
• Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc   in those markets.
• 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 Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc

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 Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc
• 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 Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc

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 Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc 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 Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc

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 Ladbrokes Coral Group Plc

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)