Carl Zeiss AG SWOT and PESTLE Analysis

Strength

1. Diverse portfolio of products: From measuring technology to medical technology to all the ophthalmology-based solutions the company serves various industries including semiconductor, automobile engineering, biomedical research, and medical technology. It meeds the diversified needs of all these industries through an extensively large product portfolio including products like lithography optics, photomask systems, microscopes, eyeglass lenses, camera, cine lenses, binoculars, and many others. All of which are well distributed in the company's 4 segments namely Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology, Industrial Quality & Research, Medical Technology, and Consumer Markets. The company's planetarium software is used in all sizes of projection equipment for the sky theatres, star theatres, and universe theatres. The extensively large array of products serve the company with a competitive advantage to corner the market.

2. Successful mergers and acquisitions: The acquisition of IanTECH, Reno (USA) by Carl Zeiss Meditec in 2018, added new solutions for minimally invasive cataract surgery to the company’s portfolio and thus further strengthened its position as an innovation leader in ophthalmology. In April 2019, Carl Zeiss acquired GOM, a leading provider of hardware and software for automated 3D coordinate metrology headquartered in Braunschweig, Germany. GOM’s cutting-edge solutions for surface digitization is expected to strengthen ZEISS in this area. The company aims to significantly expand its offer in the field of industrial measurement technology and quality assurance with leading solutions for surface measurement and digitalization through the acquisition of GOM. The acquisition of SAXONIA Systems AG in March 2020, a specialist for customized software solutions, is also expected to realize digital projects of strategic significance in the whole ZEISS Group. The use of digital technologies is a key part of the ZEISS future business strategy and hence these acquisitions are believed to be very successful and effective for the company’s growth.

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Weakness

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Opportunity

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Threat

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Political

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Economic

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Social

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Technological

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Legal

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Environmental

1. Promoting sustainable ways of business operations: There has been an increase in need and global awareness among organizations and consumers regarding sustainable business practices. ZEISS adheres to the global goal stipulated in the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius and has taken its own measures to achieve this target. In the fiscal 2018-2019, the status quo was analysed in order to identify the main influencing factors for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. As part of risk management, the company regularly assesses the potential effects and opportunities associated with climate change. More specifically, this includes the possible impact of emissions trading, plans to introduce a CO2 tax and other regulatory developments. The company also monitors potential physical phenomena, like extreme weather conditions, which could affect its own sites as well as those of its suppliers. The Executive Board is aiming at making ZEISS’ energy consumption carbon-neutral by 2022. The company is planning to execute this by purchasing verifiably green energy and by offsetting emissions that cannot be prevented. Moreover, travel regulations were revised in favour of climate-friendly means of transportation and to offset flights taken as of fiscal year 2019/20. Since 2018, the ZEISS production facility in Brazil has been using energy from renewable sources to produce lenses. A total of approximately 10,600 MWh of renewable energies were used. Heat exchangers are being used at different sites so that it is possible to reuse the exhaust heat from production. Moreover, a 3D printing process for producing operating equipment was launched at one site and has achieved considerable energy savings compared to the lathing process formerly in place.

2. Material selection to support environment sustainability: As an optics and optoelectronics company, the ZEISS Group primarily uses materials and production processes that have a minimal environmental impact and are easy to monitor. Wherever possible, potentially hazardous materials are replaced with less problematic substances. Moreover, recyclability is a key factor when selecting a material in order to close material cycles and take into account the idea of resource efficiency in its operations. Waste that can neither be prevented nor recycled is disposed of properly. ZEISS selects the most environmentally friendly disposal method that is also economically viable. In order to advance new approaches to resource efficiency, ZEISS offered four years of support to the Industrial Resource Efficiency think tank at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).