Miller Industries, Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

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SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used by Miller Industries, Inc. managers to do a situational analysis of the company . It is an important technique to evalauate the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Miller Industries, Inc. is facing in its current business environment.

The Miller Industries, Inc. is one of the leading firms in its industry. Miller Industries, Inc. 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 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 called SWOT Matrix.

The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix helps the managers of the Miller Industries, Inc. to develop four types of strategies:

SO (strengths-opportunities) Strategies
WO (weaknesses-opportunities) Strategies
ST (strengths-threats) Strategies
WT (weaknesses-threats) Strategies

Miller Industries, Inc. swot analysis / matrix

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The main purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that an organization can use to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Miller Industries, Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Miller Industries, Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Miller Industries, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading companies in its industry, Miller Industries, Inc. 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 Miller Industries, Inc. are –

Read - Miller Industries, Inc. Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Miller Industries, Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Miller Industries, Inc. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
Superb Performance in New Markets – Miller Industries, Inc. 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.
Strong Free Cash Flow – Miller Industries, Inc. 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 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.
Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Miller Industries, Inc. products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
Strong distribution network – Over the years Miller Industries, Inc. has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.

Weakness of Miller Industries, Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Miller Industries, Inc. can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where an organization 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.
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 Miller Industries, Inc.
Need more investment in new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different geographies the company is planning to expand into, Miller Industries, Inc. 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 profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Miller Industries, Inc. are below the industry average.
High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry Miller Industries, Inc. has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
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 Miller Industries, Inc. – External Strategic Factors

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Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Miller Industries, Inc.’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.
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.
The new technology provides an opportunity to Miller Industries, Inc. 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.
New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Miller Industries, Inc. . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
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 Miller Industries, Inc.. In the next few years the company can leverage this opportunity by knowing its customer better and serving their needs using big data analytics.
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 Miller Industries, Inc. in other product categories.
Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Miller Industries, Inc. products by the state as well as federal government contractors.
The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Miller Industries, Inc. to increase its profitability.

Threats Miller Industries, Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.
Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Miller Industries, Inc. in those markets.
Liability laws in different countries are different and Miller Industries, Inc. may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies in those markets.
New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
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.
Rising raw material can pose a threat to the Miller Industries, Inc. profitability.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Miller Industries, Inc.

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 Miller Industries, Inc.
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 Miller Industries, Inc.

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 Miller Industries, Inc. 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 Miller Industries, Inc.

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)