China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System
This case discusses the housing registration system that was implemented in China in the late 1950s and categorized individuals into two groups: urban and rural. This was a status that individuals were born with and passed from one generation to the next. It not only defined their place of residence and work, but also the social benefits, housing, healthcare and education they were entitled to. In the period after 1978, with reforms in rural areas and the development of urban coastal areas, cheap labor flocked to the cities. With over 200 million migrants to urban areas in 20 years, the housing registration system prevented many from finding proper jobs, housing, healthcare and education. The Chinese government embarked on a number of reforms with varying degrees of success. This case highlights rural-urban disparities and the resulting migration to urban areas.
Swot Analysis of "China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System" written by Marcus Schuetz, Carola Ramon-Berjano includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Housing Urban facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Human resource management, Labor, Policy, Strategy and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System casestudy better are - – technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Housing Urban, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Housing Urban operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Housing Urban
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Housing Urban
Strengths China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Housing Urban in China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Housing Urban to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Housing Urban to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Housing Urban has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Housing Urban has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Housing Urban is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Marcus Schuetz, Carola Ramon-Berjano can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Learning organization
- Housing Urban is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Housing Urban is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Housing Urban digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Housing Urban has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Housing Urban is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Housing Urban in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Housing Urban has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Housing Urban is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Housing Urban are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Housing Urban is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Housing Urban has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Housing Urban is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Housing Urban needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Housing Urban to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Housing Urban 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System, it seems that the employees of Housing Urban don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Housing Urban has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Housing Urban supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Housing Urban vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Housing Urban has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Housing Urban needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System, in the dynamic environment Housing Urban has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Housing Urban has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Housing Urban has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Housing Urban has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Housing Urban even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Opportunities China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System are -
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Housing Urban can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Housing Urban can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Organizational Development segment.
Loyalty marketing
– Housing Urban has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Housing Urban can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Housing Urban operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Housing Urban can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Housing Urban has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Housing Urban to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Housing Urban to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Housing Urban has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Housing Urban to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System case study. Housing Urban can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Housing Urban can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Housing Urban to increase its market reach. Housing Urban will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Housing Urban is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Housing Urban can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Housing Urban in the consumer business. Now Housing Urban can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Housing Urban with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Housing Urban can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System, Housing Urban may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
Regulatory challenges
– Housing Urban needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Organizational Development industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Housing Urban has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Housing Urban needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Housing Urban in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Housing Urban demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Housing Urban needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Housing Urban can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Housing Urban business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Housing Urban high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Housing Urban can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of China's Migrant Workforce and the Reform of Its Housing Registration System is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Housing Urban needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
