Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade
Consensus holds that competition between stock exchanges and other types of market participants is beneficial: keep the price of transaction, clearing, and listing services offered low and provide an incentive for product innovation and enhancement. As such, the 1986 unification of stock exchange trading in Hong Kong may seem like a paradoxical development. Prompts an assessment of the benefits of having a single stock exchange in Hong Kong within the broader context of the changing competitive landscape for securities markets.
Swot Analysis of "Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade" written by Ka-Fu Wong, Jennifer Lee includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Exchanges Stock facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial markets, Innovation, International business and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Exchanges Stock, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Exchanges Stock 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 Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Exchanges Stock
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Exchanges Stock
Strengths Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Exchanges Stock in Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Exchanges Stock is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Exchanges Stock 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 Exchanges Stock is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Exchanges Stock 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 Ka-Fu Wong, Jennifer Lee 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Exchanges Stock 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 Exchanges Stock in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Exchanges Stock has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Exchanges Stock to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Exchanges Stock in the sector have low bargaining power. Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Exchanges Stock to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Exchanges Stock 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 Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Exchanges Stock 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 Exchanges Stock 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Exchanges Stock digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Exchanges Stock 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Exchanges Stock has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Exchanges Stock has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Weaknesses Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade are -
Need for greater diversity
– Exchanges Stock 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade 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 Exchanges Stock 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Exchanges Stock has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Exchanges Stock 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Exchanges Stock has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Exchanges Stock is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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 Exchanges Stock supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Exchanges Stock vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade, is just above the industry average. Exchanges Stock 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Exchanges Stock is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Exchanges Stock needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Exchanges Stock to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade HBR case study mentions - Exchanges Stock 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Exchanges Stock 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.
Opportunities Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade | 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 Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade are -
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 Exchanges Stock 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
– Exchanges Stock 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 Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Exchanges Stock 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 Exchanges Stock in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Exchanges Stock can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Exchanges Stock 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Exchanges Stock 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. Exchanges Stock 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Exchanges Stock can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Exchanges Stock is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Exchanges Stock has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Exchanges Stock to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade case study. Exchanges Stock can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Exchanges Stock 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Exchanges Stock 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Exchanges Stock to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Exchanges Stock to increase its market reach. Exchanges Stock 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.
Threats Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Exchanges Stock 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 Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade .
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 Exchanges Stock in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Exchanges Stock 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Exchanges Stock 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.
Increasing wage structure of Exchanges Stock
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Exchanges Stock.
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 Exchanges Stock business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Exchanges Stock can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade, Exchanges Stock may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Exchanges Stock 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.
Environmental challenges
– Exchanges Stock 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. Exchanges Stock can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution 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. Exchanges Stock 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade 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 Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade 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 Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade 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 Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade 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 Market of Exchanges: HKEx and the New Beauty Parade 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 Exchanges Stock needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
