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Ho Chi Minh City SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Ho Chi Minh City


In March 2008 the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, approved a revised master plan designed to guide the development of the city through the year 2025. Vietnam's economy had been growing at rates of 6 to 8 percent per year for nearly two decades, and much of that growth was located in its cities, and in Ho Chi Minh City in particular. Real estate prices were at all time highs, development pressures threatened the historic French colonial core of the city and the wetlands to the west and southeast, and traffic congestion was growing rapidly as the city was registering 1300 new motorcycles and 150 new cars per day. The new master plan designated areas where growth would be encouraged and included a list of transportation and other infrastructure projects and policies designed to support the desired developments. Not all the elements of the plan seemed consistent with its goals, however, and the list of projects was so ambitious-that it was unlikely that all would be built on schedule. The obvious question was what policies and projects should receive priority. This case is designed to support a discussion of the problems of managing growth in a rapidly developing city. HKS Case Number 1909.0

Authors :: Jose Gomez-Ibanez, Nguyen Xuan Thanh

Topics :: Finance & Accounting

Tags :: Economy, Financial management, Innovation, International business, Policy, Strategic planning, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Ho Chi Minh City" written by Jose Gomez-Ibanez, Nguyen Xuan Thanh includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that City Minh facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ho Chi Minh City case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economy, Financial management, Innovation, International business, Policy, Strategic planning and Finance & Accounting.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ho Chi Minh City casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, 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%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ho Chi Minh City


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ho Chi Minh City case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the City Minh, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which City Minh 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 Ho Chi Minh City can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ho Chi Minh City case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of City Minh
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of City Minh




Strengths Ho Chi Minh City | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of City Minh in Ho Chi Minh City Harvard Business Review case study are -

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of City Minh in the sector have low bargaining power. Ho Chi Minh City has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps City Minh to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Successful track record of launching new products

– City Minh has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. City Minh 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.

Training and development

– City Minh has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ho Chi Minh City 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.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that City Minh 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 City Minh 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.

Strong track record of project management

– City Minh is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Analytics focus

– City Minh 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 Jose Gomez-Ibanez, Nguyen Xuan Thanh 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 recruit top talent

– City Minh is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ho Chi Minh City are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Diverse revenue streams

– City Minh is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ho Chi Minh City 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– City Minh 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 Ho Chi Minh City HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

High brand equity

– City Minh has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled City Minh to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– City Minh 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 Ho Chi Minh City - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.






Weaknesses Ho Chi Minh City | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Ho Chi Minh City are -

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at City Minh 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.

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 City Minh supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ho Chi Minh City, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left City Minh vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Products dominated business model

– Even though City Minh 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 - Ho Chi Minh City should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Ho Chi Minh City, in the dynamic environment City Minh has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. City Minh has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Ho Chi Minh City 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 City Minh 's lucrative customers.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of City Minh is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. City Minh needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help City Minh to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of City Minh, firm in the HBR case study Ho Chi Minh City needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

City Minh 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ho Chi Minh City, is just above the industry average. City Minh 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.

Need for greater diversity

– City Minh 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.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, City Minh 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. City Minh 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 Ho Chi Minh City | 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 Ho Chi Minh City are -

Leveraging digital technologies

– City Minh 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, City Minh is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ho Chi Minh City 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for City Minh 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects City Minh can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for City Minh 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 City Minh to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. City Minh can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

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 City Minh 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, City Minh 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.

Loyalty marketing

– City Minh 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for City Minh in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, City Minh can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Ho Chi Minh City, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

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 City Minh in the consumer business. Now City Minh can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Buying journey improvements

– City Minh can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ho Chi Minh City 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.




Threats Ho Chi Minh City External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ho Chi Minh City are -

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– City Minh has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, City Minh needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents City Minh with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. City Minh can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, City Minh 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 Ho Chi Minh City .

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ho Chi Minh City, City Minh may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .

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.

Increasing wage structure of City Minh

– 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 City Minh.

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. City Minh needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– City Minh 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

– City Minh 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. City Minh can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.

Consumer confidence and its impact on City Minh 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that City Minh is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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 City Minh in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ho Chi Minh City 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 Ho Chi Minh City 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 Ho Chi Minh City 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 Ho Chi Minh City 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 Ho Chi Minh City 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 City Minh needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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