China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China
Under the leadership of CEO and President Shen Guojun, China Yintai was increasingly committed to philanthropic initiatives. Drawing upon his experience as an entrepreneur and a philanthropist, Mr. Shen saw the urgent need to build bridges between business practices and philanthropy and cultivate a new business culture that incorporated "shared value." The case study documents Yintai's recent collaboration with Peking University on founding China's first masters program of social enterprise management. By training management professionals for China's philanthropy sector, Yintai and Mr. Shen expected to bring about revolutionary impact in the long run and change the face of China's philanthropy.
Authors :: Christopher Marquis, Ying Zhang, Shiyu Yang
Swot Analysis of "China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China" written by Christopher Marquis, Ying Zhang, Shiyu Yang includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Yintai Shen facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social enterprise and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Yintai Shen, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Yintai Shen 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 Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Yintai Shen
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 Yintai Shen
Strengths China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Yintai Shen in China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Yintai Shen 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 Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Yintai Shen is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Yintai Shen 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 Christopher Marquis, Ying Zhang, Shiyu Yang 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.
Training and development
– Yintai Shen has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China 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.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Yintai Shen 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 Yintai Shen in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Yintai Shen in the sector have low bargaining power. China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Yintai Shen to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Yintai Shen 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 Yintai Shen is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Yintai Shen is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Yintai Shen is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Yintai Shen digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Yintai Shen 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Yintai Shen 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 Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Yintai Shen to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Yintai Shen to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China HBR case study mentions - Yintai Shen takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Yintai Shen is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Yintai Shen is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Yintai Shen needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Yintai Shen to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Yintai Shen has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
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 Yintai Shen supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Yintai Shen vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Christopher Marquis, Ying Zhang, Shiyu Yang suggests that, Yintai Shen is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China, it seems that the employees of Yintai Shen 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Yintai Shen 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Yintai Shen, firm in the HBR case study China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Yintai Shen 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. Yintai Shen 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 Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China | 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 Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Yintai Shen 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 Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Yintai Shen to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Yintai Shen in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Yintai Shen can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Yintai Shen can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Yintai Shen 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Yintai Shen is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Yintai Shen can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Yintai Shen operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Yintai Shen can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Yintai Shen 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Yintai Shen can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Yintai Shen has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Yintai Shen to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China case study. Yintai Shen can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Yintai Shen can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Yintai Shen to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Yintai Shen to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Yintai Shen 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.
Threats China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Yintai Shen with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Yintai Shen in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Yintai Shen needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Yintai Shen can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Yintai Shen will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
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 Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China, Yintai Shen 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 .
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 Yintai Shen business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Yintai Shen 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. Yintai Shen needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
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. Yintai Shen can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Yintai Shen 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.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Yintai Shen.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Yintai Shen 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of China Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China 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 Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China 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 Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China 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 Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China 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 Yintai: Developing Shared Value in China 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 Yintai Shen needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.