SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool which is used in helping an organization to identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to competition and in strategic planning. SWOT helps in situational assessment or situational analysis.

Like the 4 Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) there are 5 Cs of marketing.   The 5 C’s stand for Company, Collaborators, Customers, Competitors, and Climate. These five elements help in performing situational analysis which is strategic process that helps in identifying opportunities and threats both internal and external to an organization. The 5 Cs also help product positioning which helps in reaching the target segment. 

Company

Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors. They are the areas on which organizations have some control over; they can be changed or modified little easily as they are internal. For examples weaker employees can be trained, can be mentored, if organization has patents and intellectual properties it enjoys an upper hand over competitors.  Location advantage is big strength of an organization.  However, opportunities and threats are external in nature. Companies can take advantage of opportunities and protect against threats, but they can’t change them. Examples include competitors’ pricing, prices of raw materials which depend largely on supplier cartel, and buyer behaviour trends.

Before analysing external factors, organizations need to look at internal factors. They need to look at areas in which they enjoy competitive edge over their competitors. If an organization maintains innovative company culture for example Apple whose success largely comes from their approach to innovation. The company continuously improve their existing products which eventually leads to ‘Creative Destruction’. The iPhone which is Apple’s most successful product came from mixing their existing products the iPod and iTunes and combining them with a phone and camera which resulted in a product unlike any other at the time. Apple’s iPhone created huge market disruption. Apple enjoys unique product knowledge, excellent efficiency and productivity among employees and it is too good in giving customer service that creates fantastic sales and happy customers.

Customer

Happy customers build the company brand. Positive brand reputation leads to higher growth. Reputation goes a long way in a business. It attracts customers, investors, partnerships, and employees. While seeking to improve reputation organizations must start with excellent customer service. Keeping current customers happy results in more stable revenue and more accurate predictions. Exceptional customer service is the unconditional commitment to giving the highest level of product or service to every person, regardless of the circumstances.

Today’s digital age is compelling organizations to relook at their customer-centricity promises. Companies struggle to get customer insights from other industries to match their offering. Organizations cannot rely on benchmarking from the industry they exist. For example, HDFC Bank mobile banking app was compared with the Ola app in terms of simplicity. Consumers are now accustomed to best-in-class user experiences both online and offline. A customer-centric organisational culture is no longer just a good thing rather it is a necessity for survival.

With Taj hotels is the best known for its customer service. Customer delight is present in every interaction with guests. The staff whether in housekeeping, at the restaurants, or room service all are very kind and at the service of their customers. Taj employees go out of their way to give the best hotel stay experience to their customers. So, rather than a customer service process, the customer service culture shines through.

Climate

The climate in the 5 Cs of marketing approach stands for external factors opportunities and threats of SWOT. It refers to the attitude of government and lending institutions towards business activity. It also includes the tax rate, inflation and attitude of labour unions towards the employers. Favourable business climates lower risks, reduce costs and connect companies to customers and quality workers. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to business climate change. Each company’s approach depends on its particular business model. Energy, Commodity, Financial, Technology sectors are most volatile industries.

Since past 2 years, sports utility vehicles (SUV) sector is performing well. India’s major automobile manufacturing companies includes Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra, Force Motors, Maruti, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia etc. The craze for SUVs is increasing day by day. At present that waiting periods for some of the most popular models are stretching to over two years, and fresh orders are still flowing in. Car buyers are now willing to spend more on their personal mode of travel and are preferring top-end cars. The SUV segment is enjoying a healthy business climate in India. The SUV segment’s contribution, which was around 19 per cent of the industry, has now gone up to 40 per cent in 2021-22.

Collaborators

In today’s business world, companies are usually deeply tangled, providing each other with services that are vital for day-to-day operations. Collaboration is when a group of people come together and contribute their expertise for the benefit of a shared objective, project, or mission. For example, if an organization needs to control its marketing efforts, it needs to map out entire supply chain, listing all of the third-party distributors, suppliers, partners and contractors. The reason collaborators must be a part of the 5 C analysis is that collaborations create synergy.

Last year Sabyasachi the famous women designer Indian clothing collaborated with H&M global brand. For Sabyasachi Mukherjee also it is a first with a high-street retailer. He has collaborated successfully before with French Shoe Designer Christian Louboutin and New York-based luxury department store, Bergdorf Goodman. Sabyasachi has dedicated a lot of attention to online interactions with consumers and is aware that online interaction with consumers can increase the position of the brand in the market. #SabyasachiSaree is a trend that never goes out of fashion in India. This, he has used to an advantage. It is for the first time that H&M have had a saree in their collection. Being the second largest clothing retailer in the world, it is present in 74 countries with over 5,000 stores under the various company brands, and the saree has never before featured as fast fashion. Imagine, if the trend takes off, this would be what saree enthusiasts only dream of. Sabyasachi’s collaboration with H&M has deepened Sabyasachi’s global market share.

Collaboration leads to more innovation, efficient processes, increased success, and improved communication. Collaboration helps in increasing strengths of a company.

Competitors

No business operates in a vacuum. Whether its sole proprietor shop or a or a large company, a product is always being judged in comparison that provides the same value. Healthy market competition is fundamental to a well-functioning economy. Basic economic theory says that when firms have to compete for customers, it leads to lower prices, higher quality goods and services, greater variety, and more innovation. Competition is critical not only in product markets, but also in labour markets. When firms compete to attract good employees, they must increase compensation and improve working conditions.  Firms grow when they are grounded and they spend sufficiently on market intelligence. Competition is an important C in the 5 Cs model. 

The detergent market in India can be divided into premium (Surf, Ariel), mid-price (Rin, Henko, Tide) and popular segments (Ghadi, Wheel, Nirma, Mr. White). Regional and small unorganized players still account for the 40% market. Per-capita consumption of detergent in India at 2.7 kg is the lowest in the world.

In 1987, Ghadi was launched by RSPL (Rohit Surfactancts Pvt. Ltd.), the product was also less priced and targeted at the rural customers, middle class and lower-middle class customers. It also had more or less the same positioning strategy as Nirma. In 1988, HUL launched Wheel to take on Nirma. In early 2000’s Wheel beats Nirma and takes the No.1 spot. In late 2011 and early 2012, Ghari beats Wheel and takes the number one spot in Indian detergent industry. These detergent brands fought with each other on the basis of price.  Competition reduces prices which helps people from lower income strata to buy products.

Environmental scanning is the monitoring, evaluating, and disseminating of information from the external and internal environment to key people within the corporation or organization. Business environment analysis is a regular business feature. It results in a quantity of information related to forces in the environment. It usually relates to events, trends, issues, natural calamities and expectations. ETOP analysis (environmental threat and opportunity profile) is the process of gathering information about events and their relationships within an organization’s internal and external environments. The basic purpose of environmental scanning is to help management determine the future direction of the organization. Structuring of environmental issues is necessary to make them meaning full for strategy formulation.

Understanding of management strategy or organization policy and effectiveness is not as easy; it requires looking at how company is griped with challenges, looking at the threats and opportunities and finding solutions for facing it. It requires proper evaluation on the position of an organization, whether the adopted strategy is working well and if not why and how should it progress ahead. Strategies are means of operationally signing a policy for goals and objective. For company to function very well and to be productive to its maximum standard effective strategy should not be impeded.  Sometimes very micro and neglected issues mar the strategy.

ETOP involves dividing the environment into different sectors. Each sectors can be subdivided into sub sectors. For example oil & gas  sector can be broken down into sub-sectors such as exploration & production, integrated oil & gas, oil equipment & services, pipelines, renewable energy equipment, alternative fuels producers, oil equipment, services & distribution, alternative energy etc. ETOP further analyzes the impact of each sector and sub-sector on the organization. For example, GE Oil & Gas as an existing organization in this sector requires to scan the environment from an industry perspective: O&NG industry is divided into three major sectors – upstream, midstream and downstream. The upstream sector is a term commonly used to refer to exploration, recovery and production of O&NG. In industry jargon it is simply called Exploration and Production (E&P). The downstream sector is a term commonly used to refer to the refining of crude oil and the selling and distribution of natural gas and products derived from crude oil. The midstream industry processes, stores, markets and transports commodities such as crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids (liquefied natural gas such as ethane, propane and butane) and Sulphur.

An organization’s internal environment consists of the elements within the organization, including current employees, management, the organization’s culture which is defined by operating procedures and employee behavior. Though some elements affect the organization as a whole, others affect only the management. A manager’s philosophical or leadership style directly impacts employees. Traditional managers give explicit instructions to employees, while progressive managers empower employees to make many of their own decisions. Changes in philosophy and leadership style are under the control of the manager. Unlike the external environment of a business, the internal environment can be controlled. It is important to recognize potential opportunities and threats outside company operations. However, managing the strengths of internal operations is the key to business success. Leadership matters a lot in controlling the internal environment.

The external environment of an organization are those factors outside the company that affect the company’s ability to function. Some external elements can be manipulated by company marketing, while others require the organization to make adjustments. Organizations need to monitor the basic components of a firm’s external environment, and keep a close watch on it at all times. The external environment consists of customers, government, economy and competition.

Managing image of an organization is most important in the external environment. Corporate image, or reputation, describes the manner in which a company, its activities, and its products or services are perceived by outsiders. In a competitive business climate, many businesses actively work to create and communicate a positive image to their customers, shareholders, the financial community, and the general public. A company that bungles or ignores its image is likely to encounter a variety of problems. Once an organization gets into reputation problems, it goes on growing like weeds in a garden.

Opportunities and Threats: External opportunities provide an organization with a means to improve its performance and competitive advantage in a market environment. Some opportunities can be foreseen, such as being able to expand a franchise into a new city. When organizations can think far ahead, they can create some opportunities

External threats are anything in the outside environment that can adversely affect its performance or achievement of its goals. Ironically, stronger organizations can be exposed to a greater level of threats than weaker organizations, because success raises envy and competition which a successful organization needs to fight to get ahead. Examples of external threats include new and existing regulations, new and existing competitors, new technologies that may make products or services obsolete, unstable political and legal systems in foreign markets and economic downturns. When organizations are alert and have enough resource they can turn a threat into an opportunity, such as a new technology that may displace one of the key products but also provides an opportunity for new product development.

For GE Oil & Gas the opportunities are:

• According to figures released by America’s Cambridge Energy Research Associates, India is home to around 64 trillion cubic feet of unexplored gas at various locations. This gas can be extracted, and supplied into houses and production units to trigger country’s growth.
• Demand for oil and gas in India will keep on increasing due to country’s rising energy needs.
• Oil and gas majors like Cairn, ONGC and Reliance have lined up plans for huge investments in-order to increase oil and gas production in the country, which has fuelled the growth.
• GE oil & gas can grow from within by focusing on niche products and markets where its larger rivals aren’t a factor.
• GE specializes in growth areas such as drilling equipment and compressors.
• GE is cash rich company. It aspires to continue to develop technology overlaps between the businesses it has.
• Narendra Modi government is planning to set up several power plants. It is considering setting up gas based power generation projects in states like- Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. While it plans to set up thermal power plants in states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar which produce coal, this is indeed good news.

 For GE Oil & Gas the threats are:

• The environmental pressure and market demand that oil companies experience today force them to explore new industries, i.e. renewables.
• State owned oil and gas companies like ONGC and Oil India limited are market leaders in the country. However, they are facing tough competition in oil exploration and production from private players like Reliance, Essar, Adani, etc.
• Analysts are doubtful GE Oil & Gas can achieve enough weight without acquisitions to be a major player in the industry.
• GE Oil & Gas needs to get bigger and develop a clearer strategy if it hopes to keep up with its larger competitors.
• The Oil & Gas sector need to emphasize on R&D. India is weak in it.
• Currently, Dehradun based University of Petroleum and Energy Studies is considered as the only private University which offers PHD, post graduate and undergraduate courses in energy and petroleum. This University aims to create professionals who can serve India’s rapidly growing oil and gas Industry.

This is how ETOP analysis provides clarity of which sector and sub sectors have favorable impact on the organization. It helps interpret the result of environment analysis due to which an organization can assess its competitive position.

Sigmund Freud the father of psychology said that mind is landscaped. Like a landscape, mind has a structure and each structure has function of its own to play. In Freud’s model of mind the conscious mind (everything that we see and are aware of) is seen as the tip of the iceberg of our unconscious mind. Our unconscious mind is like a storehouse of our primitive wishes, ideas, and impulse which are kept at bay and mediated by the preconscious area. According to Freud the structure of the unconscious mind is like a large metal pot ‘cauldron’. So all that we desire but are scared to speak of and some events which have left lasting effect on us of which we are unable to speak because of fright are locked away in the unconscious mind. The ‘locking away’ process happens through suppression/repression. Sigmund Freud emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind; he stated that to a great extent it governs behavior of people. And, the objective of psychoanalysis is to make the unconscious conscious (aware).

In 1923, Freud developed a more structural model of the mind comprising of id, ego and superego. These are not physical areas within the brain, but rather hypothetical conceptualizations of important mental functions.

Freud said that the id expresses pleasures which comprises of two kinds of biological instincts or drives which Freud labeled as Eros and Thanatos. Eros helps the individual to survive; it expresses life-sustaining activities such as respiration, eating and sex. The energy created by the life instincts is known as libido. In contrast, Thanatos is viewed as a set of destructive forces present in all human beings such as hostility, aggression and destruction. Freud believed that Eros is stronger than Thanatos, thus enabling people to survive rather than self-destruct.

The ego develops from the id during infancy. The ego’s goal is to satisfy the demands of the id in a safe manner which is socially accepted and does not harm others.  In contrast to the id the ego follows the reality principle as it operates from both the conscious and unconscious mind.

The superego develops during early childhood when the child identifies with the same sex parent and is responsible for setting moral standards to be followed. The superego operates on the ethics and morality principle and motivates us to behave socially in a responsible and acceptable manner. The superego makes us self-governed; we feel ashamed for cheating others or harming others and feel guilty if rules are not followed by us. When there is conflict between the objectives of the id and superego the ego acts as a referee and arbitrates the conflict. The ego can thus organize various defense mechanisms to prevent it from becoming overwhelmed by anxiety.

Freud has explained that our brain guards us from disturbing thoughts and memories by holding back them and he believed that we are almost entirely driven by unconscious sexual desire. So Freud used to say that our dreams are a secret outlet for these repressed desires. Sigmund Freud used dream analysis to interpret the fundamental language of dreams; it is very different from normal conscious thinking. Freud intelligently used id, ego and super-ego to support his research on dreams.

The study of dreaming is called Oneirology; its psychoanalysis runs through neuroscience, psychology, and literature. Do you know, till today the plain fact why we dream is still unexplained. But that hasn’t stopped scientists from coming up with some pretty fascinating premise; each study has come out with variety of reasoning.

Dreaming allows wish fulfillment: After examining and analyzing dreams of hundreds of his patients, Freud came up with a presumption that dreams are wish-fulfillments. Any dream, no matter how terrifying, can be looked at as a way of getting something that you want, either literally or symbolically. If you dream of falling from height, which is the most common dream, the dream suggests that you may have lost control over a particular situation in your life. The situation can possibly be linked to job, work, and school assignment, home or even in your relationship. Falling dreams are usually vivid ones that you can recall them quite easily and are able to remember most of the symbols.

Dreaming is storing an idea in memory: Famous psychiatrist Jie Zhang said that dreams are not just randomly-generated stories caused by neural impulses. Perhaps, there are also more reasons for dreaming them. He said that our brain is always storing memories regardless of whether we are awake or asleep. Dreams are a kind of “temporary storage” area of realization, a spot where we hold memories before we move them from short-term to long-term storage. A dream flashes through our mind before it is filed in our memory.

Dream often cleanses our mind: In our dreams we get rid of undesirable connections and associations that build up in our brains throughout the day. Basically, dreams are garbage collection mechanisms, clearing our minds of useless thoughts and making way for better ones. Essentially, we dream in order to forget the bad actions and deeds. Dreams help us get rid of the information overload of daily life and retain only the most important data. Yes, that’s the truth.

Strengthening what we learn: One theory suggests that we actually dream to remember rather than forget. It’s based on a number of studies that show people remember what they’ve learned better if they dream after learning it.  It supports Jie Zhang’s theory about long-term memory storage; our dreams help us retain what we’ve learned.

Psychiatrists suggest that we should keep people awake and talk to them for hours if they have experienced a trauma. The theory is reinforced by recent studies on trauma, which suggest that when people go to sleep right after a traumatic experience, they are more likely to remember and be haunted by the trauma.

Preparation for threats: Neuroscientist Antti Revonusuo of Finland suggested that dreams play a biological function often to replicate threatening events which prepare us to face it. People who have threatening kinds of dreams are better able to face threats in their waking hours, because they’ve already run through these in their dreams. Harvard medical researcher Deirdre Barrett suggests that dreams are a kind of theatre in which we are able to solve problems more effectively than when we are awake. This happens partly because the dreaming mind makes connections more quickly than the waking mind does. This idea is based in part on experiments she did where people were asked to solve problems while “sleeping on them.” The problem-solving outcomes were better for the candidates who dreamt.

Processing painful emotions with symbolic associations: solving problems in our sleep is itself a kind of Darwinian process. Basically, dreams are natural selection for ideas and this can broaden to the level of emotions, too. One group of researchers suggests that dreams are places where we run through situations and try to select the most useful emotional reactions to them. Psychologist Richart Coutts suggests that this is the best way to react to those situations emotionally. And, we often feel better about painful issues the next morning after a night of dreams. While a Darwinian model of dreaming suggests that we aggressively transform our ideas to weed out problematic and awkward emotions, a new model of dreaming suggests that the process is more like therapy. We don’t aggressively select for the most adaptive idea or emotion, we just run through those ideas and emotions and place them in a broader psychological context. Often, the brain does this by associating an emotion with a symbol.

So friends, dreams play an important role in our emotional, psychological and physical health. We have the romantic, terrifying, emotional, funny, awkward, loving, uniting, separating and weird dreams. What we may not realize is that these dreams are common across cultures and their seemingly wacky content is both important and meaningful. We spend an average of eight hours a night sleeping, which is basically a third of our life. About a quarter of our sleep is spent dreaming, which in an average lifetime represents about six full years of dreaming. Most of the researchers conclude that dreams play a central role in our emotional health, our memory, our learning and to help us to find solutions to our problems.