Can someone do a detailed SWOT analysis on the Michaels Companies Inc (just the strengths and weaknesses)

Answer 1

Strengths:

1. 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.
2. Strong distribution network – Over the years The Michaels Companies, Inc. has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
3. Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to The Michaels Companies, Inc. products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
4. Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. The Michaels Companies, 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.
5. Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
6. Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
7. Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years The Michaels Companies, Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of The Michaels Companies, Inc. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
8. Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – The Michaels Companies, Inc. is relatively successful at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new revenue streams.

Weaknesses:

1. 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.
2. High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry The Michaels Companies, Inc. has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
3. 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 The Michaels Companies, Inc.
4. 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 The Michaels Companies, Inc. is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
5. Organization structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting expansion in adjacent product segments.
6. Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though The Michaels Companies, Inc. is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
7. Investment in Research and Development is below the fastest growing players in the industry. Even though The Michaels Companies, 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.