Polaris Industries Inc. SWOT Analysis / Matrix

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

The Polaris Industries Inc. is one of the leading firms in its industry. Polaris Industries Inc. 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 organization such as – marketing, finance, operations, management information systems and strategic planning.

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The SWOT Analysis framework facilitates 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 Polaris Industries Inc. to develop four types of strategies:

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

Polaris Industries Inc. swot analysis / matrix

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The core purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that a company can use to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Polaris Industries Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Polaris Industries Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Polaris Industries Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

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

Read - Polaris Industries Inc. Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – Polaris Industries Inc. 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.
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.
Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. Polaris Industries Inc. 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.
Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Polaris Industries Inc. 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 Polaris Industries Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Polaris Industries Inc. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.

Weakness of Polaris Industries Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Polaris Industries Inc. 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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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. Polaris Industries Inc. has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
Investment in Research and Development is below the fastest growing players in the industry. Even though Polaris Industries Inc. 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.
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 Polaris Industries Inc.
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 Polaris Industries Inc. is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
Organization structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting expansion in adjacent product segments.
Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though Polaris Industries Inc. is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.

Opportunities for Polaris Industries Inc. – External Strategic Factors

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New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Polaris Industries Inc. . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
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 taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Polaris Industries Inc. to increase its profitability.
Government green drive also opens an opportunity for procurement of Polaris Industries Inc. 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 Polaris Industries Inc. 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 Polaris Industries Inc. in other product categories.
The new technology provides an opportunity to Polaris 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.
Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Polaris Industries Inc..

Threats Polaris Industries Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
Rising raw material can pose a threat to the Polaris Industries Inc. profitability.
Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for Polaris Industries Inc. in those markets.
Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to Polaris Industries Inc.’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
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.
The company can face lawsuits in various markets given - different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Polaris 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 Polaris 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 Polaris 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 Polaris 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 Polaris 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)