Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong
In 2003, the Hong Kong government opened the market for electronic trading services. It awarded a license, the second of two, to GO-Business to design, implement, operate and maintain the front-end system of the Government Electronic Trading Service (GETS). The first license had gone to Tradelink, which had enjoyed a monopoly in the market for six years. GETS was a system that enabled traders to submit and apply for trade documents electronically. As a latecomer in the market for a compulsory government service that had been monopolized, GO-Business faced formidable barriers in competing with Tradelink. How could GO-Business position itself and what could it do to compete with Tradelink and gained market share?
Swot Analysis of "Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong" written by Benjamin Yen, Grace Loo includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Tradelink Trading facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tradelink Trading, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tradelink Trading 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 Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tradelink Trading
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 Tradelink Trading
Strengths Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tradelink Trading in Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Tradelink Trading
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Tradelink Trading does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Tradelink Trading digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Tradelink Trading 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Tradelink Trading in the sector have low bargaining power. Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Tradelink Trading to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Tradelink Trading 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 Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Tradelink Trading is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Tradelink Trading 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Tradelink Trading is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong 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
– Tradelink Trading is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Tradelink Trading 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 Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Tradelink Trading in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Tradelink Trading 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 Tradelink Trading is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Tradelink Trading 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.
Weaknesses Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong 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 Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Tradelink Trading is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong 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 Tradelink Trading 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Tradelink Trading 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Tradelink Trading 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Tradelink Trading 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong 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 Tradelink Trading has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Benjamin Yen, Grace Loo suggests that, Tradelink Trading 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Tradelink Trading 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong HBR case study mentions - Tradelink Trading 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong, it seems that the employees of Tradelink Trading 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.
Opportunities Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong | 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 Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong are -
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. Tradelink Trading can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Tradelink Trading 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Tradelink Trading is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Tradelink Trading can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Tradelink Trading 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 Tradelink Trading to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Tradelink Trading can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Tradelink Trading to increase its market reach. Tradelink Trading 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Tradelink Trading 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Tradelink Trading can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Tradelink Trading 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Tradelink Trading 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.
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 Tradelink Trading in the consumer business. Now Tradelink Trading can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Tradelink Trading has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Tradelink Trading to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong case study. Tradelink Trading can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Tradelink Trading 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.
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 Tradelink Trading business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Tradelink Trading.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Tradelink Trading with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Tradelink Trading 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.
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
– Tradelink Trading 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. Tradelink Trading can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Increasing wage structure of Tradelink Trading
– 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 Tradelink Trading.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Tradelink Trading 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Tradelink Trading is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Tradelink Trading 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Tradelink Trading 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong, Tradelink Trading 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong 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 Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong 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 Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong 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 Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong 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 Go-Business: Competition in the Newly Deregulated Government Electronic Trading Service Market Hong Kong 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 Tradelink Trading needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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