1.

0 Abstract
This paper intends to create a strategic management plan for Sime Darby Plantation. The
management plan also assesses the factors of profit declining in the company and set a few goals
to achieve. The management plan addresses the constantly changing business environment, the
financial crisis, price fluctuation, weather condition and government intervention into
consideration. The tools used to assess the internal and external environment are SWOT, PEST,
Porter 5 forces, EFE Matrix, VRIO Framework, IFE Matrix. The result from analysis will reveal
how attractive the alternative strategies and enhance the quality of strategic decision of top
management before making any decision which strategy that suit best to Sime Darby.

Keywords: Palm Oil, Profit decline, Plantation, Environment

2.0 Introduction
Demand for palm oil is growing up now. At the moment, many company need palm oil as
material for their products, Malaysia and Indonesia addressed as the largest palm oil users in
Asia region. Palm oil plantation cannot planted in any place, it must have appropriate climate.
Tropical rain forest and peat lands in South East Asia become suitable area for palm oil
plantation. Sime Darby Berhad was created in 2007 through a merger of Sime Darby Berhad,
Golden Hope Plantations, and Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad Group of Companies. William Sime
and Henry Darby was founder of Sime Darby in 1910. In 1981, In November 30th, 2007 synergy
drive re-entered the stock market under the name of Sime Darby with a market capitalization of
RM 59.5 Billion at the start of the merger process (Sime Darby History, 2013).

Sime Darby Berhad is a multinational company conglomerate involve in 5 core of business such
as Plantations, Property, Industrial, Motors, and Energy & Utilities. Sime Darby Plantation (SDP)
is plantations and agri-business arm of the Sime Darby Berhad which the division areas spread in
3 countries which are Malaysia, Indonesia, and Liberia. Tan Sri Dato Abdul Ghani Othman as a
chairman of SDP. The plantations involve the full spectrum of palm oil value chain, which
divided in two operations. Its upstream operation, which consist of oil plantation & mills, rubber
plantation & factories, and pink guava with the total 534,245 hectares spread over. Further,
midstream & downstream operation, which consist of palm oil refineries, kernel crushing plants,
production of edible oil and fats products, biodiesel production, oleochemicals production, pink
guava juices, production of value added products from renewable based feed stocks,
Phytonutrient Tocotrienol vitamin E, composting plants, and biogas plants with the total area
860,454 hectares spread over. (Sime Darby Plantation, 2013)

SDP is the largest Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) in the world which noted 93%
produced annual crude palm oil and 94% annual palm kernel production. The highest production
CSPO in FY 2014 at 2.14 Million MT and followed by palm kernel at 0.49 million MT. In year
2014 the amount of employed Sime Darby Plantation nearly 80,000 people with separated in
many areas (Ernst &Young, 2014).

3.0 Company Profile

3.1 History
The company brand has been around for over 100 years and was started in Malacca in 1910. The
founders of the Sime Darby are Alexander Guthrie, Daniel and Smith Harrison, Joseph Crosfield,

William Sime and Henry dEsterre and Herbert Mitford Darby. In year 2007, the three big
companies such as Sime Darby, Guthrie and Golden Hope are merged and were named Synergy
Drive. Later, Synergy Drive was renamed as Sime Darby Berhad (Sime Darby Berhad, 2013a).

From the information in Sime Darby 2014 annual report, Sime Darbys core businesses are
plantations, property, motor, heavy equipment and energy & utilities. Thats why this company
is being known as an international conglomerate. The number of employees in year 2014 was
103,507 people. Sime Darby runs their operation in 26 countries and territories including Taiwan,
Thailand, Germany, Liberia and many more. Total market capitalization of Sime Darby in year
2014 is RM58.6 billion. The largest shareholder of Sime Darby is Permodalan Nasional Berhad
followed by the Employees Provident Fund or EPF and others.

3.2 Vision
To be a leading multinational corporation delivering sustainable value to all stakeholders.

3.3 Mission

Sime Darby is committed to developing a winning portfolio of sustainable business

We subscribe good corporate governance and high ethical values

We continuously strive to deliver superior financial returns through operational

excellence and high performance standards

We provide the environment for our people to realize their full potential

3.4 Company structure

Source from : http://m.kinibiz.com/tag/sime-darby

4.0 Industry profile

Local competitors for Sime Darby are Felda Global Ventures and IOI Corporation

Felda Global Ventures Holding Berhad is a private limited company and operating under
Federal Land Development Authority. They are engage in 6 main business such as palm
upstream, palm downstream, sugar, rubber, R&D and agribusiness services and transport,
Logistics, Marketing and Others. IOI was located in Malaysia and they are committed to
have a good palm oil practices. IOI was involved in 3 core business which is the plantation

that includes the cultivation of palm oil and palm oil extraction, resource-based
manufacturing and property.

International competitors of Sime Darby are Wilmar International Limited, Golden AgriResources Limited

Wilmar International Limited was located in Singapore and one of the Asia's leading
agribusiness groups. Business activities almost similar to Sime Darby such as oil palm
cultivation, biodiesel and production of fertilizer. It was known as a company who provide
high quality processed agriculture product for food industry. Golden Agri-Resources Ltd is
the world's second largest palm oil plantation company and it was located in Indonesia.
Primary activities include palm oil cultivation, palm kernel, palm oil and also involved in
food industry.

5.0 Analysis on vision and mission statement

Vision statement :
To be a leading multinational corporation delivering sustainable value to all stakeholders

Based on the analysis of vision statement of Sime Darby, the vision is a good statement. It
can answer the basic question of what do we want to become. The readability of the vision
statement is also good.

Mission statement :

Sime Darby is committed to developing a winning portfolio of sustainable business

We subscribe good corporate governance and high ethical values

We continuously strive to deliver superior financial returns through operational

excellence and high performance standards

We provide the environment for our people to realize their full potential

Checklist for Nine (9) Mission Statement Components

No

Component

Statement

1.

Customer

NIL

2.

Product or Services

NIL

3.

Market

NIL

4.

Technology

NIL

5.

Concern for survival,

We continuously strive to deliver superior financial

growth and profitability

returns through operational excellence and high

performance standards

6.

Philosophy

We subscribe good corporate governance and high

ethical values

7.

Self-concept

We continuously strive to deliver superior financial returns

through operational excellence and high performance
standards

8.

Concern for public image

Sime Darby is committed to developing a winning

portfolio of sustainable business

9.

Concern for employees

We provide the environment for our people to realize

their full potential

Table 5.1 : Checklist on nine components in mission statement

From the analysis of mission statement, Sime Darby meets five out of nine elements. The
statement is lack of four components which are customer, product or services, market and
technology. Sime Darbys mission doesnt mention about who are their customers, what type
of product or service they want to offer to customer, where does Sime Darby compete in
market and the current technology. Therefore, Sime Darby should revise and reexamine back
their mission statement.

6.0 External environment

6.1 PESTEL
PESTEL analysis focuses on the factors at the macro level (the external environment) include
political, environment, social, technological, economic and legal. In general, all these factors
have their own sub-factors and its own influence in the business world. According to Haim
Hilman, basically companies need a good macro environment, like political stability, a growing
economy, good socio-cultural, technological support the growth of industry, environmental
issues that support the development of industry and industry-friendly legal. So that, important for
Sime Darby Plantation to understanding PESTEL analysis.
Politic

The first factor of PESTEL is political. Political issues related to the SDP got a charge that the
industrial oil palm plantations result in deforestation that are not healthy. Development Program
of the United Nations guidelines also regulates the field. Satellite image of deforestation in
Borneo has attracted the attention of environmental organizations such as WWF, Greenpeace and
Rainforest Rescue (Tropical Forest News, 2015). For example, in 1967 and 2000, increasing

the total area of about 2000 square kilometers to more than 30,000 square kilometers of palm
cultivation in Indonesia has become a cause of deforestation and illegal logging is rapidly
increasing (Wikipedia, n.d.). In addition, Greenpeace states that one of the reasons of
deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia is because the process is needed for oil palm plantations,
the burning of tropical forests for oil palm cultivation has also led to a massive increase in
carbon leavers produces because large quantities of smoke into the atmosphere and it has become
one of Indonesia became the third highest transmitter of greenhouse gases in the world (CNN,
2012).

Environment
The second factor is related to the environment. Environment such as forests are vital to all life,
especially human or animal because the forest is a place of residence, source of opinion, a
watershed, shelter and so on. Therefore, the increase in palm oil production SDP has caused
harm or negative impact on tropical forests and wildlife habitats. According to a report by the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) published in 2007 argued that the main reason
of rainforest destruction happened in Malaysia and Indonesia are caused by the oil palm industry
and also believes that perhaps by 2022 the forests in Indonesia by 98 percent would be destroyed
because illegal logging and illegal, forest fires and the development of oil fields and refineries
for biodiesel filter (The Environment News of UNEP, 2007). However, in recent years, the SDP
has shown good commitment in preserving the environment. A variety activity have been
undertaken by the SDP to preserve of environment and conversation of biodiversity such placing
a biogas power plant for the purpose of reducing the carbon emission , zero burning replanting of
the area, it is forbidden to clean the areas with high conservation value (Sime Darby Berhad,

(2014b). Furthermore, SDP has also introduced a replacement for petroleum oil biodiesel and
will be used soon in the future (Malaysian Palm Oil Council, 2012). Therefore, the use of
biodiesel is important as it can reduce environmental pollution compared to petroleum oil usage.

Social
Sime Darby Foundation is one of the SDP initiatives that established to share value and
contribute to social and environmental. With this, there are various projects that have been
implemented by Yayasan Sime Darby to contribute to society and the environment, such as the
School Makeover Project, Project Save Our Waterfall, Bakau initiatives. (Sime Darby Plantation,
2011a)

In addition, social factors also can improve people's life and promote the wellbeing especially the
community of Indonesia. Palm oil is a valuable cash crop and provides a human resource of
society. It enables a small landholder to participate in the economy that can generate the cash and
often leads to an increase in local infrastructure. From this, Sime Darby Plantation has improved
quality of life of community in Indonesia by providing a medical clinic, improving infrastructure
like highways, schools and houses of religion. So at this time, the improvements have been
successfully providing more than 15,000 houses for local people (Sime Darby Plantation, 2011b).

Technology
For technology factor of SDP is have good cooperation between the two agencies in Malaysia
and Indonesia, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board's (MPOB) and Indonesian Oil Palm Research
Institute (IOPRI) will try and provide support to develop good technologies and techniques of the

eco-friendly in oil palm. For example, SDP also use a plug best agriculture technique such as
biological control, pest control and zero burning to support the eco-friendly practices in palm oil
plantation (Greenpeace International, 2008).

Economic
Economic factor is very important for a country because it can be improved or developed
countries. Sime Darby Plantation greatly affected the Malaysia National Economic primarily
because it is a major exporter of country and SDP at the fourth place for the largest contributor to
the national economy because there are huge increasing in expected gross national income (GNI)
from RM53 billion in year 2009 (Malaysia Economic report 2011). The performance of the oil
industry in the country is seen to improve with some improvements, especially in the number of
crude palm oil production of 11.3%, which is 18.91 million tones in 2011 compared to 16.99
million tons in 2010. Malaysia's Economic Transformation Programme states are now actively
promoting the country's palm oil after the commodity identified and is believed to be one of the
national key economic areas (NKEA) to be transformed include the entire value chain and
farming activities until the product is ready. In addition, the Economic Transformation Program
aims to achieve a GNI palm oil as RM 178 billion by 2022 (Annual Report of the Economic
Transformation Programme, 2012).

Legal
To successfully conduct business in other countries, SDP has always respected and have a high
awareness of the law in all the countries they operate. SDP have a strict internal policies and zero
tolerance for non-compliance standard for their operation. In order for SDP to meet the necessary

need of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, SDP always regulates the guidelines of
plantation with committed to operational sustainability (Sime Darby Berhad, 2014b).

6.2 Porter 5 forces

Michael E. Porter is the person who has organized the analysis of porter in 1980. The underlying
concept of this theory is that there are five forces determine the competitive intensity and
attractiveness of the market. In general, PorterS five forces strength is a simple tool to analyze
the company, where the power of the business lies is located. It is very useful to understand the
power of what you have on your current business and making it into consideration. To
understand where of lies, you can take advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of your
anticipation. In other words, it's helpful to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the
company.
Rivalry among existing competitor : HIGH
Threat to the rivalry among excisting competitor SDP is quite high, because the limited number
of production due to resulting its geographic area, while the number of player in the market very
much. The highest number of player in the market can be separate in 2 part, major and minor
player. Further, major player as follower close behind to SDP, Sample of this, another big
plantation company, such as Felda Global Venture in Malaysia and PT. Golden Agri Resources,
Wilmar International Group, and Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) IV in Indonesia. In the other
hand, minor player played by private sector under corporate and personal keep increasing to
taking chances and observing developments.

Threat of New Entrants : LOW

Threat to the entry of new competition which is how they can get into the market. In general, the
market has great profitability will attract new companies. It means that, the probability of new
entrans keep increase. But, in SDP threat of new entry is quite low. The high of market
profitability of oil plantation and rubber does not followed to the new entrans competition,
because of the capital to start up oil plantation company and palm oil plantation mill are very
high. SDP is a leader in Research & Development (R&D) that always introduce and develop
their new technology which will be reference to others plantation company. Further, SDP also
requires a series of approvals and inspections as government policy to ensure that the SDP
follows the rules of health, safety, and environmental owned by the state. Based on this, the
purposes are to maintain and built employees and public trust. So, the opportunity of new entrans
will be diminish.
Threat of Substitute products or service : HIGH
Threat of substitutes for palm oil in SDP is high due to several factors. Open palm oil land
needed extensive forest clearing, it can directly affect the state of the environment ecosystem.
The production of palm oil often uses more fertilizer abundant waste product that can cause the
flow of polluting local waterways. Moreover, threats arise from the conversion of peat land
carbon-rich plantations, peat this terrible enormous release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
(wetlands of international Silvius, 2008) due to these factors, the high threat of replacement of
palm oil. Although the results of palm oil quadrupled from other production, there are many
other substitutes in the market, such as corn oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, and olive oil. Among
the products that substitute products, olive oil most nutritious and healthy.

Bargaining power of supplier : LOW

SDP requires quality raw materials, namely seeds, fertilizers, and soil. To obtain seeds, SDP can
take from existing ones today. This can reduce expenses, because it does not have to pay extra to
buy seeds. SDP also can manage the rest of the fruit of which can be used as fertilizers.
Therefore, SDP can produce seed and fertilizer from their own plantations. SDP make a good
relationship to the supplier by provide commitment, SDP creates a networking bussiness to the
future needs and determine how the suppliers provide satisfaction to the goods they need.
Usually SDP buy from suppliers if they are experiencing a shortage, but this is rarely in the case.
The nursery SDP, which is involved in this activity are the upstream and downstream are
involved directly in the market.
Bargaining power of buyers : LOW
Demand for palm oil is increase from time to time, but the price has been determined. Increase
demand cause of many company use oil plantation and rubber as raw material for their
production. Crude oil prices have been defined and become the rule. SDP make a good
relationship to the buyers by maintaing trust, SDP provide product according buyers needs and
necessary technical assistance. Bargaining power of buyers in palm oil is very high, because in
the market available difference price and quality of product. The major countries as major buyers
of SDP are European Union, China, and India which has little control over price.

6.3 EFE Matrix

Key External Factors

Opportunities
1. Increasing Demand for CPO
2. Rising health issue
3. Availability of land in Indonesia
4. Support by both government
5. Emerging biofuel market
Threats
6. Price fluctuation of CPO could lead to lower demand of palm oil
7. Land ownership issues
8. Stiff competition related to plantation expansion
9. Minimum wages enforce by Malaysian government
10. Adverse weather
TOTAL WEIGHTED SCORE

Weight

Rating Weighted Score

0.13
0.12
0.08
0.11
0.12

4
3
3
3
3

0.52
0.36
0.24
0.33
0.36

0.11
0.07
0.09
0.07
0.10
1.00

1
2
2
2
1

0.11
0.14
0.18
0.14
1.64
4.02

Table 6.1 : EFE Matrix

The average total weighted score of EFE is 2.50. So the total weighted score of Sime Darby is
4.02. Sime Darby can be considered as responding to existing opportunities and threat in its
industry.

6.4 Competitive Profile Matrix

SDB

IOI

GAR

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR Weight Rating Score Rating Score Rating Score
Product Quality
Corporate social responsibility
Strategic alliance and partnership
expansion
market share
geographical coverage
financial stability
customer loyalty
product development
environmental friendly
TOTAL WEIGHTED SCORE

0.13
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.09
0.07
0.10
0.09
0.10
0.12
1.00

4
4
4
3
4
4
4
4
3
4

0.52
0.48
0.40
0.24
0.36
0.28
0.40
0.36
0.30
0.48
3.82

2
3
2
1
2
2
2
3
1
3

0.26
0.36
0.20
0.08
0.18
0.14
0.20
0.27
0.10
0.36
2.15

3
2
3
2
3
3
3
2
2
2

0.39
0.24
0.30
0.16
0.27
0.21
0.30
0.18
0.20
0.24
2.49

Table 6.2 : CPM Matrix

For competitive profile matrix, Sime Darby is at first place followed by Golden AgriResources and IOI. This analysis reveals that Sime Darby is stronger than other competitor
almost in all areas except for the expansion and product development which are not at fully
efficient.
7.0 Internal environment
7.1 IFE Matrix

Key Internal Factors

Strengths
1. Diversified business activities
2. World largest listed oil palm plantation
3. Environmentally friendly practices
4. High skilled workers & talented team
5. Top development in bioeconomy and biodiesel
Weakness
6. Declining in revenue and PBIT
7. Shortage of workers in plantation industry
8. Depends heavily on upstream operation
9. Lack of skilled plantation labor
10. Young field in Liberia produce no output and unstability in community
TOTAL WEIGHTED SCORE
Table 7.1 : IFE Matrix

Weight

Rating Weighted Score

0.13
0.12
0.08
0.07
0.10

4
4
3
3
3

0.52
0.48
0.24
0.21
0.30

0.10
0.12
0.10
0.11
0.07
1.00

1
1
1
2
1

0.10
0.12
0.10
0.22
1.53
3.82

The average total weighted score of IFE is 2.50. So the total weighted score of Sime Darby is
3.82. Sime Darby can be considered to have a strong internal position.

7.2 VRIO Framework

Resources and

Value

Rarity

Imitability

Competencies

Organizati

Competitive

on

Advantage

Brand Name

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Sustained

Research and Development

Yes

No

No

Yes

Parity

Certified sustainable palm

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Sustained

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Temporary

oil
Diversified Businness
Activity
Table 7.2 : VRIO Framework
Brand name
The first resource identified in Sime Darby is the brand name. Sime Darby Plantaton is
consistently known as world's largest plantation. So SDP brand is valuable and quite strong
within their rivals in the industry. In Malaysia, Sime Darby Plantation is the largest listed
plantation company. Sime Darby brand can be considering as rare because when people thinking
of palm oil, Sime Darby is typically the first company that comes to their mind. Brand name is
imitable because not all palm oil company can compete with them due to well-known brand
name in the entire world. There are high investment made and commitment to maintain the
company's reputation for a long time. Besides that, the brand name owned by Sime Darby also
had emulated by other competitors. Sime Darby uses brand value when entering the foreign
markets to dominate their market share. So the company can organized this resource very well.
Therefore, the impact of this resource is sustainable competitive advantage.

Research and development

The second resource identified in Sime Darby Plantation is research & development activity. In
order for Sime Darby Plantation to face the challenges of the palm oil sector is make a
breakthrough in biotechnology and innovation investment (Sime Darby Plantation, 2014). As an
industry leader in research and development, there is a high demand for existing products to be
replace by healthier products. Biodiesel is one of the valuable findings that take many years
before it was introduced to the public. So research & development activity can be considered as
valuable because it also helps SDP in sustain their business and obtain the competitive advantage
over other competitors. The resource is not rare because other competitor such as Golden AgriResources and Wilmar International Limited also spend huge money on the research to come out
almost similar product at market. However, this resource is not considered as imitable because
other palm oil company with good financial records could copy the strategy of SDP. SDP is able
to exploit their market share by conduct an intensive research to improve their product and
performance. SDP can organize this resource very well. Therefore, the impact of this resource is
a competitive parity.

Certified sustainable palm oil

SDP is also highlight as a certified sustainable palm oil producers in the world and produce 2.4
millIion tones of CPO annual output (Sime Darby Plantation, 2014). This resource is valuable
because it allowed SDP to control large market share. These resources also can be considered as
rare because it has always being observed by other competitor in term of standard palm oil
production. This resource also considered as imitable because there are a lots of requirement
which must be met and continuous certification assessment by regular body. Besides that, not all

competitors are able to comply with the requirement all the time like SDP. Obviously, SDP can
organize this resource very well. Therefore, the impact of this resource is sustainable competitive
advantage.

Diversified Business Activity

Sime Darby involved in 5 core sectors which are plantation, industrial, equipment, motors,
property and energy & utilities. Sime Darby Plantation is divided into 2 business activity, the first
downstream activity, and the second upstream activity. It is valuable because diversified business
activity can reduce the business risk because company is not depending on one sector to generate
the revenue. This resource is considered as rare because it helps in sustained their competitive
advantage by having a highly diversified portfolio in market. This resource is not imitable,
because other competitor can diversified their business like SDP if they are provided enough
capital. SDP can organize this resource very well. Therefore, the impact of this resource is
temporary competitive advantage.

8.0 Strategy analysis and Choice

8.1 SWOT Matrix

Strategic analysis of Sime Darbys performance using the SWOT matrix.
SWOT analysis is a tool used to have a better understanding of the Sime Darbys business. Most
organizations use a SWOT analysis to make a strategic planning and it can be applied to
individual organization, make a comparison between two companies and evaluate several
companies (Helms & Nixon, 2010). The purpose of strategic planning is to ensure that the

employees and stakeholder are working to achieve the goals. Research by Wilson & Eilertsen
(2010) has shown that organization that use the strategic planning in decision making during the
economic crisis have a positive outlook on the future prospect of companys profit and growth.
However, strategic planning will not give any benefit if it does not involve the financial
sustainability and the situation of the company at that time. Strategic planning will be less
effective if the organization fails to identify the obstacles that exist. It will become a stumbling
block to the organization to be successful.

Besides that, SWOT analysis has been used in identifying the main strategies by the bank to
control foreign currency exchange market (Shariatmadaria, Sarfaraz, Hedayat and Vadoudi
2013). A recent study by Boone (2015) has shown that SWOT is used to give a clear picture of
the product and the service in the aspect of the competition and its external environment by
identify the organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to improve
the quality of service delivery of blended learning. For developing a benchmarking on supply
chain, SWOT analysis can provide information to identify the barriers that exist for purpose of
technology transfer (Kumar, Luthra, & Haleem, 2015). SWOT analysis can identify the potential
crisis and give an early warning to the business. It is a first step in developing an effective
strategy in organization. The positive and negative factor inside and outside of organization that
could affect the performance are being view. It can help in identifying the competitive advantage
by matching the strength and opportunity. By identifying the competitive advantage, it provides
a new way for the organization to outperform their competitor.

However, results of SWOT analysis may be viewed from different perspectives. Some
organization may see the arrival of new competition in the market is a threat to the business but
for other organization it is the opportunity to explore a new world. As Shariatmadaria et. al (2013)
advised, SWOT factors are not independent of each other, but it is clear that there is a
relationship between them(p.887). Chaghooshi, Fathi, Omidian and Zarchi (2011) also agree
that SWOT factor are not independent but the dependency on this factor can be determined from
the result of internal and external environmental analysis. By having a better understanding of
the factor that affect the business, it helps the organization to predict the trends and develop a
strategy to achieve the goals.
STRENGTH

Diversified business activities

World largest listed oil palm
plantation
Top development in bioeconomy and
biodiesel industry.
Environmental friendly practices
High skilled and talented team

WEAKNESSES

Declining in revenue and PBIT

Shortage of workers in plantation
industry
Depends heavily on upstream
operation
Lack of skill plantation labor
Young field in Liberia produce no
output and instability of community
THREAT

OPPORTUNITY

Increasing Demand for CPO

Rising health issue
Availability of land in Indonesia
Support by both goverment
Emerging biofuel market

Table 8.1 : SWOT Matrix

Price fluctuation of CPO could

lead to lower demand of palm oil
Land ownership issues
Stiff competition related to
plantation expansion
Minimum wages enforce by
Malaysian goverment
Adverse weather

STRENGTH

i)

Diversified business activities

Sime Darby involved in 5 core sectors which are plantation, industrial, equipment, motors,
property and energy & utilities (Sime Darby Berhad, 2013). The company does not rely on one
type of business only to make a profit and maintain the business. Plantation sector was in third
place in contributing the revenue in year 2014 and the first and second place was obtained by the
motors and industrial sector (Sime Darby Berhad, 2014b). Research by Jiang, Ma, and An (2013)
has revealed that by diversify the business over the emerging markets, there are huge benefit that
can be gained for pursuing this type of strategy. Additionally, Mitton and Vorkink (2010) found
that diversification can affect the companys risk by influence on stock prices and expected
return. Therefore, the diversification strategy used by the Sime Darby by involving in five
sectors of business can result in decreased risk of operation.

Sime Darbys business spans include the palm oil industry from the upstream to downstream
operation. Recently, Sime Darby has a new refinery in Pulau Laut Kalimantan in Indonesia and
they have expected the contribution to be higher with this new facility, and for the industrial
sector, Sime Darby involved in mining sector in Australia (Sime Darby Berhad, 2014b). In year
2011, Sime Darby has acquired a portion of the former Bucyrus distribution business where this
is a chance to strengthen their presence and provide product and service to customers who
involved in the mining sector in Australia (Sime Darby Buys Bucyrus Distribution Business,
2011). Sime Darby also a supplier of a heavy equipment and engine, provide a rental services,
and purchased second hand machine (Sime Darby Industrial, 2013). For the motor sector, Sime

Darby got a place of KIA assembly and distribution in Taiwan, and involved in BMW operations
in Brisbane, Australia and Vietnam (Sime Darbys Proposed Acquisition of NBPOL to Enhance
EPS, 2015). For property sector, the higher profit contribution was generated from the Taman
Pasir Putih and City of Elmina (Sime Darby Berhad, 2014b). Sime Darby were listed in one of
the countrys top three property for the award of property excellence awards in 2014 and end up
with the second best place in Malaysia (Sime Darby Property Secures Top Property Developers
Award for the Fifth Time, 2015)

ii)

World largest listed oil palm plantation

Sime Darby is the largest listed plantation company in Malaysia. Sime Darby Plantation is able
to produce about 2.47 million tons which is 5% from the worlds crude palm oil annually (Sime
Darby Plantation, 2014b). The palm oil has many uses so the plantation sector is capable of
achieving high profit with appropriate strategy. Currently, the plantation sector generates
revenue RM 10,953.5 million in year 2014 which equal to 24.9% from total of contribution
revenue by all segments and with market capitalization of RM58.6 billion (Sime Darby Berhad,
2014a). High market capitalization will attract the attention of investors because it gives an
indication that this organization has a high value in market. However, this factor alone cannot be
used in evaluating a business because the companys debt is not included in market capitalization
(Kennon, 2015).
Sime Darby plantation focus on research & development to improve the production of palm oil
and to explore the biodiesel industries (Sime Darby Plantation, 2013a). For year 2014, the oil
extraction rate has increased slightly compared to the year 2013 and has planted more oil palm
tree in Liberia (Sime Darby Berhad, 2014b). Nowadays, land is a limited and it is a valuable

resources. However, the demand for land is keep growing and cause the price of land to increase
too. Therefore, the production of palm oil needs to be improved in order to maximize the profit
by using the limited resources. Thus, the establishment of Research & Development is to achieve
those objectives.
By holding a title of worlds largest palm oil producer, Sime Darby can get an advantage of
economic of scale. This will help in the process of negotiating to get the best price. However, it
does not depend on the size of the business alone. There are also other factors that should be
considered too in order for Sime Darby to gain the advantage of economic of scale. This
statement are consistent with the finding in Soirinsuo and Mkinen (2011) where they found that
economies of scale exist in timber haulage sector but it depends on other factors as well. It
depends on the profit of the company, works are performed by employees of the company itself
and whether they use the resources wisely.
iii)

Top development in bioeconomy and biodiesel industry.

Verdezyne and Sime Darby Berhad are involved in investment of $48 million for the purpose of
technology development of Sime Darby Renewables and also invest another $30million in return
for a 30% stake in Verdezyne company (Lane, 2014). Besides that, Sime Darby also involved in
the operation of biodiesel. Sime Darby has taken the first step by introducing biodiesel and
believed biodiesel will be used in the future soon (Malaysian Palm Oil Council, 2012). This
statement makes sense because nowadays people are more concerned about the impact on the
environment and the use of biodiesel is less polluting than petrol. When people began to realize
the important of using biodiesel and the impact to the environment, the demand of the biodiesel
will increase too.

iv)

Environmental Friendly Practices

Sime Darby is committed to have a best practice in plantation sustainability. Sime Darby
believes that in order to maintain the business in the long run, the environment must be preserved.
The effort can be seen through the Sime Darbys annual report where there are many initiatives
that demonstrate their concern for the environment. One of the practices is focusing on carbon
emission from agriculture.
Sime Darby placing a biogas power plant for the purpose of reducing the carbon emission and
the performance in 2014 was quite good in which Sime Darby managed to reduce 11% in
plantations upstream carbon emission. Additional, Sime Darby show a strong commitment to
conserve the forest. Some of the effort to conserve the forest is zero burning for areas replanted,
prohibited from creating a new plant on peat land and also prohibited to clean the areas with high
conservation value (Sime Darby Berhad, 2014b). Besides that, Sime Darby also preserves the
ecosystem by held a program such as the plant a tree program and the Cirey Island wildlife
sanctuary (Sime Darby Plantation, 2013).
v)

High skilled and talented team

Sime Darby provides safety training and safety leadership training to its employee to reduce
possibility of accidents at workplace. The effectiveness of these activities can be seen through
Sime Darby annual report 2014 in which the lost time injury frequency rate showed a decline
from year 2011 until year 2014. To retain skilled workers, Sime Darby monitors their
performance two times in a year and identifies their weaknesses so that they can plan an action to
close the gaps of the performance of each worker. Sime Darby also emphasizes on continuous
learning by provide a leadership skill development program and excellent customer service to

their employees. Currently, the total number of employees in Sime Darby for year 2014 is
103,507 people (Sime Darby Berhad, 2014b).
WEAKNESSES
i)

Declining in revenue and PBIT

There are many reasons why revenue is decline. Revenue has been decline from the year 2012
until year 2014. One of the reasons is because of the commodity price is keep changing. Palm oil
prices may rise sharply when other country such as Indonesia impose tax on the crude palm
export but it is only temporary (Palm oil falls, 2015). As mention by Abdulla, Arshad, Bala,
Noh, & Tasrif (2014), the purpose of impose tax on export is to raise the government revenue,
encourage the downstream operation and any changes on the export tax rate could give effect to
Malaysia and Indonesia. For example, if the rate of export tax in Indonesia is lower than
Malaysia, then other countries would buy from Indonesia because the price is cheaper. The crude
palm oil export tax are expected to increase to 4.5% starting on April 2015 and is believed to
affect the volume of crude palm oil export when the importers switched to Indonesia that offer a
cheaper price (CPO export tax tax to go up to 4.5% in April, 2015). This situation may reduce
the volume of purchasing of palm oil from Malaysia and affect the financial performance of
organization.
Revenue recorded for Sime Darby in year 2012 is RM46,630.50 million, RM46,109 million in
year 2013 and RM43,908 million in year 2014 (Sime Darby Berhad, 2014b). This situation
clearly shows that Sime Darby has experienced a decline in revenue within these 3 years. If no
changes we made by the top management of Sime Darby towards the strategy, the revenue will
continue to decline for the next year. Profit before interest and tax or PBIT also declined by 9%

in year 2014 compared to the previous year. Lower plantation revenue is one of the factors that
contribute to this decline.
ii)

Shortage of workers in plantation industry

Labors can be considered as the backbone of the company to continue the operation. It is easier
to blame the workers who do not have the skills compares to the labor shortages situation. If
demand for palm oil increase in market, the demand for workers employed in this sector also
increased too. Normally, the presence of foreign workers will fill the shortage of workers in the
local market but it will cause a problem when all these workers return to their respective
countries. Due to a shortage of workers, Malaysia planters face difficulties in making the
decision to pay more in keeping their employees (Raghu, 2014). Labor shortages will cause
delays in the process of cutting oil palm fruit and leaving fruits to root. This will result in low
quality of palm fruit. Other reason why many Indonesian workers returning to their countries is
due to better salaries offer to the planters in Indonesia (Chooi, 2012).
iii)

Depends heavily on upstream operation

Sime Darbys upstream operation include the oil palm plantation where there are total of 525,290
hectares planted, estates management, milling of fresh fruit bunches, pink guava and for the
downstream operation, Sime Darby involved in the manufacture of oil and fat products, biodiesel
based on palm oil, produce pink guava juice, biogas plant and oleochemicals (Sime Darby
Berhad, 2014b). Some of the downstream activities require a different skills and knowledge
compared to the upstream activities. For example, SDP still hire an Indonesian workers who do
not have higher education to cut the oil palm fruit while for biodiesel processing, Sime Darby
require a professional workers. This situation is testing the ability of companies to adapt with the

changes in environment and changes in labor market. Besides that, the Performance Management
and Delivery Unit have made a statement and asked on the Malaysia plantation companies to
engage in downstream activities (Choo, 2014).
Depends heavily on plantation will bring a problem if the palm oil prices fall sharply. Sime
Darby will only get a higher return from this sector when palm oil prices are high in market.
However, among the main causes of the decline of revenue in year 2014 is because of sales
volume of crude palm oil is weak, lower fresh fruit brunch, delay in peak cropping and dry
weather (Sime Darby Berhad, 2014b).
While upstream activities shows a declining in revenue, for the midstream and downstream
operation, profit has increased by 40% compared to the year 2013 and this contribution has come
from mills, new refinery in Indonesia and sales from segregated and traceable products (Sime
Darby Berhad, 2014b). The midstream and downstream activities have a high potential for
generating high revenue.

iv)

Lack of skilled plantation labor

After Indonesian introduced an attractive wages to their citizen, there is a huge reduction in the
number of workers who work in Malaysia. This is because the minimum wages in Indonesia is
now almost equal to the minimum wages in Malaysia, and Sime Darby also provides other
benefit such as house, medical services and current daily needs such as oil and rice in order to
retain the Indonesian skilled workers (Chew, 2014). Normally, Sime Darby hiring workers from

Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh for their plantation sector (Choo, 2014). One of the
reason why Indonesian workers has become the priority instead of other countries is because
they are faster in cutting, harvesting and collecting oil palm fruit. The downsizing of Indonesian
workers will affect the company performance especially in terms of quantity of palm oil that can
be collected as local workers have less interest to work in plantation sector.
v)

Young field in Liberia produce no output and instability of community

There is a high uncertainty in doing the business of plantation sector in Liberia. Based on the
information in Sime Darby annual report in year 2014, total planted of oil palm in Liberia is
10,035 hectare. However, this cultivation area does not give any benefit to Sime Darby because
the trees are still in the immature stage. Additional, there is a community issue involving Sime
Darby and Liberia (Siakor, 2012). At first, the community is agree to the governments proposal
but changed mind at last minute so the impact of this instability in Liberia is most of the citizen
are not working and forest have been cleared and planted with palm oil. Thus, this issue will
affect the Sime Darby to implement their strategies in future.
OPPORTUNITIES
i)

Increasing Demand for CPO

Based on the source from MPOB, we can analyze that percentage of exports since 2010, the
percentage of PPO export as compared to CPO production was at 98.1% with CPO production at
16.99 million tonnes and PPO export of 16.66 million tonnes. In year 2011, the PPO export of
17.99 million tonnes and CPO production at 18.91 million tonnes with a percentage of PPO
export was at 95.1%. In 2012, CPO production showed that 18.79 million tonnes and PPO export
of 17.56 million tonnes or represented 93.5% out of CPO production. Annual report 2014 also

showed that 5.8% increase in crude palm oil for year 2014 compared to the year 2013. Therefore,
it clearly defined that CPO price behavior more independent on world demand factors as
compared to the domestic factor itself. Actually, there has a reason why demand for CPO was
increasing. It is because of the cost of competing vegetable oils such as soy oil, sunflower oil and
maize oil. When the producer of this vegetarian oil lowers their production because of bad
weather, so will help increase of CPO price.
ii)

Rising health issue

Nowadays, we realize the rising of health issue because of the wrongly feeding method. People
not concern about their nutrition. Every day the mortality rate caused by health problem occur.
So, because of that, people should practice how proper nutrition. Firstly, they should know what
kind of food that contributes to become a health issue. When they know about it, they will think
about how to reduce the risk. Therefore, palm oil is the best way to take in their nutrition.
Actually, the palm oil is likewise an important source of calories and a food staple in the poor
communities. Still, particularly in relation to cardiovascular disease, the controversial and open
to ongoing research are the overall health impacts. The reason why the palm oil consumed as a
food because of to more oxidized rather than in the fresh state. Also, the oxidation appears to be
responsible for the health hazard connected to the consuming the palm oil. (Wikipedia, 2015)
Costa Rica was conducted the study that linked to palm oil and cardiovascular disease which
indicated that replacing palm oil in cooking with polyunsaturated non-hydrogenated oils could
reduce the risk of heart attacks, and a 2011 analysis of 23 countries which showed that for each
kilogram of palm oil added to the diet annually there was an increase in ischemic heart disease
deaths (68 deaths per 100,000 increase) though the increase was much smaller in high-income

countries. However, results from several studies indicate that palm oil provides health benefits,
including increasing good cholesterol and reducing bad cholesterol, and that consumption of
palm oil does not increase the risk of cerebrovascular disease (Wikipedia, 2015).
All vegetable oils contain natural vitamin E in compounds such as tocopherols and tocotrienols.
Palm oil has the richest known content of natural tocotrienols. Studies have shown that
tocotrienol helps lower bad cholesterol levels and protects the brain against diseases. Palm oil is
also high in carotenoids, a rich source of vitamin A. Carotenoids can be stored in the body and be
converted to vitamin A when needed. Vitamin A stimulates the immune system and controls the
growth and functions of body tissues. Red palm oil, or mildly refined palm oil, has seventeen
times more carotenoids than carrots. Palm oil is cholesterol-free and fat free. It is composed
mainly of triglycerides of fatty acid with a balanced composition between saturated and
unsaturated fatty acids. The latter comprises 40% monounsaturated and 10% polyunsaturated fat
(Sime Darby Berhad, 2014b). Therefore, the consumption of palm oil gave the benefit to the
people that care about their health indirectly lead the demand of palm oil increase.
iii)

Availability of land in Indonesia

Minimums Plantation was represented of Sime Darby Plantation in Indonesia, which was set up
in April 2001 and headquarters in Jakarta. It has a presence in eight provinces with a total land
bank of 280,274 hectares out of which 203,845 are planted with oil palm, representing
approximately 73% of the companys total planted area (As of January 2015).Besides, with the
71 estates and 23 SOUs (Strategic Operating Units) located in Sumatra, Kalimantan and
Sulawesi, Minamas upstream operations produced 4.145 million metric tonnes of fresh fruit
bunches (FFB) and 927,803 metric tonnes of crude palm oil in the 2013/2014 financial year. Out

of the 25 PTs in Indonesia, 24 PTs have received the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)
certification, while the rest were audited for certification. Today, Minamas Plantation produced
869,912 metric tonnes of certified sustainable palm oil and 184,815 metric tonnes of certified
sustainable palm kernels and the total of certified planted hectares are 201,476 Ha (Sime Darby
Plantation, 2014c). So, with the availability of land in the Indonesia were given the opportunity
for the Sime Darby Plantation to increase their profit in this sector.
iv)

Support by both government

Based on annual report 2014, it showed the operational statistic that proved not only Malaysia
that makes a production in this sector, but the support of the other government such as Indonesia
and Liberia. As we know, Sime Darby Plantation is one of the agribusiness arms of the Sime
Darby Group. As an integrated plantation company, Sime Darby Plantation is involved in the full
spectrum of the palm oil value chain. The predominantly of oil palm cultivation, harvesting and
milling is the current Upstream operation that spread across 534,245 hectares of plant areas in
Malaysia, Indonesia and Liberia. The Companys land bank currently stands at 860,454 hectares
across these three countries (Malaysia, Indonesia and Liberia). While, the downstream business
involves the manufacturing of oils and fats products likes Oleochemicals, palm oil-based
biodiesel and other palm oil derivatives, as well as the sales and marketing activities of these
products. Alongside oil palm, the Company is also involved in other agribusiness activities, the
cultivation of rubber as well as in the consumer goods sector, producing cooking oil and fruit
juices, among others (Sime Darby Berhad, 2014b).
Sime Darby Plantation is the worlds largest producer of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO).
It is a leader in plantation sustainability, with 93% of its annual crude palm oil and 94% of its

annual palm kernel production RSPO certified in FY2014. As a co-founding member of the
RSPO, the Plantation Division is committed to implementing the independent, approved
certification schemes in its Upstream (estates and mills) and downstream (refining) operations
Worldwide. Plantation Division employed nearly 80,000 people in FY2014 (Sime Darby, 2014b).
v)

Emerging biofuel markets

The important fact here is biofuel market is vital for economic growth. This factor has led to an
increased demand of biofuel around the world. According to Kim and Isma'il (2014), one of the
reasons why the demand for biofuels increased because this sector will create the job
opportunities, assess to new markets, and also contribute to the improvement of agriculture
technology. In extending this statement is that biofuel industry requires many workers to run
their operation for examples workers in production position and management position. Thus, it
will enhance the income opportunity for the citizen in that country. Kim and Ismail also stated
that biofuel markets give a positive impact to rural area and promote a good local health
environment. It is because some of the priorities in the policy of biofuel production are to reduce
the level of greenhouse gases thus giving a positive impact to environment.
THREATS
i)

Price fluctuation of CPO could lead to lower demand of palm oil

There are several of the largest importers of palm oil such as China, India and Europe. The euro
zone debt crisis and slowing food demand in India caused by the crisis that arises like global
economic downturn and China will lead to a decrease demand of palm oil as these countries
would spend less on imports during these times. The surplus of supply of palm oil in palm oil

producing countries like Malaysia and Indonesia caused of less demand and it will push the price
of crude palm oil down.
The price of crude palm oil affected because of import policies and laws of countries that import
crude palm oil. Take an Australia as an example. They offered a measure to enforce labeling
palm oil as a product ingredient instead of veggie oil. If this bill was reached, consumers who
believe that palm oil is bad because palm oil plantations have led to deforestation, could easily
avoid products that contain palm oil. This could lead to lower demand for palm oil-based
merchandise, thus requiring the price of crude palm oil. (Futures, o. p., 2014)
ii)

Land ownership issues

One of the main issues that faced by Sime Darby Plantation is a land ownership plantation. The
issue in relation to the plantation area in Indonesia is conflict with local communities with regard
to the ownership of the land caused by lack of clarity as to land status and the legal ownership of
land. Despite effort taken by the government, communities and other stakeholder, this land
problem has been a classic issue for years in Indonesia. Investor, therefore, will need to perform
a careful check on land status prior to acquiring a piece of land to avoid possible land problems
in the future.
Another land issue is the limitation on the ownership of the land area of a plantation company.
The

Ministry

of

Agriculture

through

Article

12

of

its

Regulation

No.26/Permentan/OT.140/2/2007 regarding Guidance of Licensing Plantation Business

stipulates that a plantation company can have a maximum of 100,000 hectares in plantation area
or twice that if the plantation area is located in Papua. In practice, however, the limit is subject to
condition, especially in the case of a new plantation company needing to acquire a piece of land

for its plantation area. This is due to another regulation issued by the State Minister of
Agriculture / National Land Agency, No.2/1999 in year 1999, regarding Location Licenses.
Based on the above National Land Agency regulation, a plantation company must obtain a
Location Licenses from the Land Office prior to acquiring land for the plantation area. This
regulation, however, stipulates that a palm plantation company can only own / control a
maximum of 20000 hectares in one province or twice that in Papua province and 100000
hectares throughout Indonesia.
Consequently, a plantation company that operates in one province can only have maximum
20000 hectares based on regulation No.2/1999 instead of 100000 hectares is based on regulation
No.26/Permentan/OT.140/2/2007. Furthermore, the limitation in regulation No.2/1999 applies
not only to individual palm plantation companies, but also to other palm plantation companies
which constitute a group of companies (Rianto, 2010)
iii)

Stiff competition related to plantation expansion

Sime Darby faces an intense competition in market. Sime Darby has to compete with IOI who is
also committed to have a good oil palm practices. Felda Global Venture also operating in highly
diversified business such as palm upstream and downstream, rubber and sugar. International
competitor of Sime Darby is the Golden Agri-Resources which is located in Indonesia. This
competitor also put pressure on Sime Darby by having a similar operation and also put pressure
of who have a better practice in environmental responsibility.
iv)

Minimum wages enforce by Malaysian government

Enforcement of minimum wages in Malaysia will increase the operational cost of Sime Darby. It
means that, Sime Darby have to pay higher salary to their estate workers if previously they pay
low wages to their workers. According to Cheah (2015), the enforcement of minimum wages
could influence the production cost to rise as much as 5% and decreasing in earning as much as
10%. So the minimum wages could be a threat to Sime Darby if the contributions and the
quality of work provided by the employee are still at the same level despite an increase in total
salary. This statement is consistent with the finding in Carpio, Nguyen, and Wang (2012) where
they used firm-level data from the Indonesia survey and finds that minimum wages have a
negative effect on employment and could lead to job losses. However, they also stated that the
negative impact depends on the size of company and the impact is felt more by small companies
instead of big company and workers who have less education will be effected when the
enforcement of minimum wages is take place. Even though Sime Darby is one of the big
company, but most of their estate workers are an ordinary person and have low education so the
workers will also be exposed to the loss of jobs.
v)

Adverse weather

Adverse weather condition could affect the number of harvesting and the growth of palm trees.
According to US Department of Agriculture (2015), flood in Malaysia recently has affected the
production of crude palm oil. It also stated that the production of crude palm oil has been
declining total of 15% in December 2014. Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang are not the largest
contributor to the palm oil production but have been the most affected by this flood. Based on
the information in US Department of Agriculture, the flood has delayed the collection of palm
fruit and transportation infrastructures are damage. This situation will lead to low quality of palm
fruits thus also affect the rate of yield.

8.2 SWOT Analysis

STRENGTH (S)
INTERNAL
FACTORS

EXTERNAL
FACTOR

OPPORTUNITY (O)
O1 Increasing demand for
CPO
O2 Rising health issue
O3 availabity of land in
Indonesia
O4 Support by both
goverment
O5 Emerging biofuel market

THREAT (T)
T1 Price fluctuation
T2 land owvership issues
T3 Stiff competition related

S1 Diversified business
activities
S2 World largest listed oil
palm plantation
S3 Environmentally friendly
practices
S4 High skilled workers &
talented team
S5 Top development in
bioeconomy and biodiesel
STRATEGY SO
All activities, programs
and products are being
publicize for social
awareness and to promote
sustainability
(S3 and O3)
Conduct an intensive
research and development
to produce high quality of
biofuel
(S5 and O5)
STRATEGY ST
Acquirer Indonesian
plantation by buying their
shares and make them as
subsidiary
(S2, T2 and T3)

to plantation expansion
T4 minimum wages enforce
by malaysia government
T5 adverse weather
Table 8.1 : Alternative Strategy based on SWOT Matrix

WEAKNESSES (W)
W1 Declining in revenue
and PBIT
W2 Shortage of workers in
plantation industry
W3 Depends heavily on
upstream operation
W4 Lack of skilled
plantation labor
W5 Young field in Liberia
produce no output and
unstability in community
STRATEGY WO
Build strong alliance with
Indonesia
(W1, O3 and O4)
Provide additional training
for the labours
(W4 and O1)
calloboration with local
and outside employment
agency
(W2 and O4)
STRATEGY WT
Explore new market and
land availability to other
South East Asian
countries such as Thailand
and Cambodia
(W5 and T2)
Retain workers by
including better
compensation, bonus,
health & life insurance
(W2 and T4)

8.3 QSPM

Key External Factors

Opportunities
1. Increasing Demand for CPO
2. Rising health issue
3. Availability of land in Indonesia
4. Support by both government
5. Emerging biofuel market
Threats
6.
Price fluctuation of CPO
7.
Land ownership issues
8.
Stiff competition related to plantation expansion
9.
Minimum wages enforce by malaysian goverment
10. Adverse weather
TOTAL
Strengths
1. Diversified business activities
2. World largest listed oil palm plantation
3. Environmentally friendly practices
4. High skilled workers & talented team
5. Top development in bioeconomy and biodiesel
Weakness
6. Declining in revenue and PBIT
7. Shortage of workers in plantation industry
8. Depends heavily on upstream operation
9. Lack of skilled plantation labor
10. Young field in Liberia produce no output &
unstability in community
TOTAL
TOTAL ATTRACTIVENESS SCORE

Table 8.2 : QSPM

STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVES
1
2
3
Acquirer Indonesian Explore new market Retain workers by
plantation
& land availability
including better
bonus & insurance
Weight AS
TAS
AS
TAS
AS
TAS
0.13
0.12
0.08
0.11
0.12

4.00
4.00
4.00
-

0.52
0.32
0.44
-

3.00
2.00
3.00
-

0.39
0.16
0.33
-

2.00
1.00
1.00
-

0.26
0.08
0.11
-

0.11
0.07
0.09
0.07
0.10
1.00

3.00
3.00
3.00
2.00
-

0.33
0.21
0.27
0.14
-

1.00
4.00
4.00
1.00
-

0.11
0.28
0.36
0.07
-

2.00
2.00
2.00
4.00
-

0.22
0.14
0.18
0.28
-

0.13
0.12
0.08
0.07
0.10

3.00
3.00
3.00
-

0.39
0.36
0.21
-

4.00
4.00
2.00
-

0.52
0.48
0.14
-

1.00
1.00
4.00
-

0.13
0.12
0.28
-

0.10
0.12
0.10
0.11
0.07

2.00
3.00
3.00

0.24
0.30
0.21

1.00
4.00
4.00

0.12
0.40
0.28

4.00
1.00
1.00

0.48
0.10
0.07

1.00
2.07

1.81

1.61

Based on the result in QSPM techniques, the analysis indicates that Sime Darby should acquirer
Indonesian plantation with total attractiveness score of 2.07.

9.0 Recommendation
Based on the TOWS analysis, Strategy SO (Strength and Opportunity) have shown that all
activities, programs and products Sime Darby are being publicize for social awareness and to
promote sustainability. This because in recent years, Sime Darby has given committed to
environmental concerns such as the focus on carbon emissions from farming. Therefore, to show
that Sime Darby is concerned about the environment, they have protection of environmental and
conversation of the biodiversity for the purpose of reducing carbon emissions and other activities
such as forest conservation efforts with zero burning for areas replanted, prohibited establishing
new plant in peat and the like. In addition, SO strategy is also focused on biodiesel market by
conduct an intensive research and development to produce high quality of biofuel. As we know
nowadays, people are more concerned about the use of biodiesel or biofuel compared to petrol
because it is one way to minimize environmental pollution. Then this is an opportunity for SDP
to increase plant and production of palm oil especially in Indonesia because of the availability of
land suitable for oil palm.

For WO strategy (Weaknesses and Opportunities) is to build an alliance partnership with

Indonesia. Sime Darby Malaysia must build a strong relationship with Indonesia because
Indonesia is a large land area and suitable for the palm oil exploitation that could have increase
revenue palm oil products to Sime Darby. Besides that, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
also recognized and shows an acceptance of Indonesia under their program. In addition, the Sime

Darby also need to provide additional training for workers so that they perform their duties
efficiently in order to produce palm oil, which is high quality and can produce products
according to the request within the on specific time. Furthermore, Sime Darby will need to work
with local and foreign employment agencies for skilled workers in the agricultural industry and
have received its support from both the government of that country.

For ST strategy (Strength and Threat) is Sime Darby can take over competitors in the Indonesia
plantation companies by buying their shares and make them as subsidiaries. Although there is a
threat in terms of the issue of land owners, especially in Indonesia, such as plantation area in
conflict with local communities about the land owners and threats related with a variety of strong
competition such as Golden Agri Resources and Felda Global Venture in the development of oil
palm plantations but Sime Darby have power over other competitors because it is the largest and
top listed oil palm plantation in the world. Then, when the Sime Darby to work with the
Indonesian government and landowners in resolving the issue of property, then it is the
opportunity to be an acquirer Sime Darby plantations in Indonesia with ease.

For WT strategy (Weaknesses and Threat) Sime Darby may be trying to explore new markets
and the availability of land to Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Cambodia for oil
palm plantations. In addition, Sime Darby is also necessary to maintain workers by offering
attractive salary or other rewards as compensation, bonus, health and a better life for workers and
can also use the latest agricultural technologies for minimum dependence on human resource.

Based on the table QSPM above, there are three alternative strategies for consideration by the
acquirer Sime Darby Plantation Indonesia, explore new markets and the availability of land and
retain employees by including compensation, bonus, health and insurance. Based on QSPM table
also shows that there are seven factors that could not affect the strategic alternative. There is
rising of health issue, emerging biofuel market, adverse weather, environmentally friendly
practices, top development in bioeconomy and biodiesel, declining in revenue and PBIT, lack of
skilled plantation labor and while others affect the choices made. Refer to table QSPM, we can
see that even the second choice have more score 4 of attractiveness scores (AS) compared with
the first option, but the overall total attractiveness scores of the first choice is the acquirer
plantation in Indonesia is highest, then the most appropriate strategic alternative for Sime Darby
chose is the acquirer Indonesian plantations with a total score higher points is 2.07 compare with
explore new markets where total score attractions is 1.81 and retain workers by including better
bonus and insurance is only 1.61.

10.0

Conclusion

In a nutshell, Sime Darby Plantation operates palm oil and rubber plantation in Indonesia,
Malaysia and Liberia. Sime Darby is one of the largest palm oil producer in the world but for the
year 2014, SDB Plantation division faced with the declined issue by 6.2% if want to compared
with the prior financial year primarily due to lower sales volume by 7.4% as a result of the lower
fresh fruit bunch (FFB) production by 7.0%. Besides that, FFB production in Indonesia operation
declined by 13.2%, mostly due to delays in peak cropping and prolonged dry weather. The
impact of lower sales volume was partially offset by the 5.8% increase in CPO price realized. To
reduce or avoid the problem that contribute to SDB issue for plantation division is a, they must to

strategies again what they have to do like acquire Indonesia plantation because based on the
QSPM, its a most attractiveness compared to the others. Other than that, SDB also can increase
their processing of biodiesel or biofuel in case of people nowadays more concern about healthy.
Actually, SDB have a many ways to fix back their problem to make sure plantation division will
become largest revenue generator to the company.

11.0

Reference