Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing
The contract footwear manufacturing industry is a highly competitive labor-intensive industry. Hong Kong-listed Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited is the world's largest contract footwear manufacturer, five times larger than its nearest rival, with the major global brands as its key customers. This case explores how a traditional footwear manufacturer has used a measured strategy of innovation and integration to gain competitive advantage in the intensely competitive global marketplace, thus upgrading itself in the economic value chain. The case asks students to analyze the company's growth strategies and to consider if it can continue to sustain its competitive advantage.
Authors :: Ali Farhoomand, Alison Bate, Christina Chan
Swot Analysis of "Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing" written by Ali Farhoomand, Alison Bate, Christina Chan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Footwear Yuen facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Globalization, Manufacturing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Footwear Yuen, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Footwear Yuen 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 Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Footwear Yuen
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Footwear Yuen
Strengths Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Footwear Yuen in Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Footwear Yuen 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 Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing - 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 Sales & Marketing industry
– Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Footwear Yuen to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Footwear Yuen to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Footwear Yuen is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Footwear Yuen is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Footwear Yuen has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Footwear Yuen is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Footwear Yuen 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 Footwear Yuen is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Footwear Yuen in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Footwear Yuen has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Footwear Yuen 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Footwear Yuen is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing 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.
Weaknesses Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing HBR case study mentions - Footwear Yuen 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Footwear Yuen 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Footwear Yuen 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Footwear Yuen 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing 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 Footwear Yuen 's lucrative customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Footwear Yuen products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Footwear Yuen needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 Footwear Yuen supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Footwear Yuen vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing, is just above the industry average. Footwear Yuen needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Footwear Yuen, firm in the HBR case study Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing, it seems that the employees of Footwear Yuen 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Footwear Yuen is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Footwear Yuen needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Footwear Yuen to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing | 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 Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Footwear Yuen 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 Footwear Yuen to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Footwear Yuen can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Footwear Yuen operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Footwear Yuen in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Footwear Yuen can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing 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.
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 Footwear Yuen 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Footwear Yuen 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 Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Footwear Yuen to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Footwear Yuen 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 Sales & Marketing segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Footwear Yuen 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 Footwear Yuen has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Footwear Yuen to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing case study. Footwear Yuen can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Footwear Yuen is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing 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, Footwear Yuen 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Footwear Yuen can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
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. Footwear Yuen can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Footwear Yuen can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Footwear Yuen 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Footwear Yuen 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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Footwear Yuen 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. Footwear Yuen can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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. Footwear Yuen needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing, Footwear Yuen may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Footwear Yuen 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 Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing .
Regulatory challenges
– Footwear Yuen 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Footwear Yuen with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Footwear Yuen is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Footwear Yuen in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing 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 Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing 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 Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing 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 Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing 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 Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Limited: (A) Making 200 Million Pair of Shoes a Year and Growing 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 Footwear Yuen needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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