Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks
China's moves to introduce a Circular Economy have attracted wide attention as a solution to severe problems of resource inefficiency and lack of resource productivity. This article highlights the distinctive strategy of focusing such efforts on existing industrial parks, turning them into eco-industrial parks. It provides three case studies and highlights the management issues involved as overcoming reverse salients and capturing network advantages. China is an especially instructive case because it starts well behind the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and thereby has much to gain by adopting comprehensive policies.
Swot Analysis of "Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks" written by John A. Mathews, Hao Tan, Mei-Chih Hu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Parks Industrial facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Sustainability and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Parks Industrial, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Parks Industrial 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 Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Parks Industrial
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Parks Industrial
Strengths Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Parks Industrial in Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Parks Industrial is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Parks Industrial is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks 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.
Analytics focus
– Parks Industrial 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 John A. Mathews, Hao Tan, Mei-Chih Hu 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Parks Industrial digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Parks Industrial 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.
Learning organization
- Parks Industrial 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 Parks Industrial is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Parks Industrial to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Parks Industrial to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Parks Industrial in the sector have low bargaining power. Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Parks Industrial to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Parks Industrial 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 Parks Industrial in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Parks Industrial has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Parks Industrial to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Parks Industrial 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Parks Industrial 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
– Parks Industrial has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks 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.
Weaknesses Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks, in the dynamic environment Parks Industrial has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Parks Industrial has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Parks Industrial 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. Parks Industrial 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Parks Industrial has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Parks Industrial is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Parks Industrial needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Parks Industrial to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Parks Industrial, firm in the HBR case study Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Parks Industrial 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Parks Industrial 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Parks Industrial 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks, is just above the industry average. Parks Industrial 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks 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 Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Parks Industrial is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Parks Industrial supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Parks Industrial vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks | 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 Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Parks Industrial can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Parks Industrial operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Parks Industrial can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Parks Industrial in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Parks Industrial 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 Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Parks Industrial to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Parks Industrial 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Parks Industrial can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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.
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 Parks Industrial 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, Parks Industrial 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 Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Parks Industrial 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. Parks Industrial 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Parks Industrial can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Parks Industrial 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Parks Industrial 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Parks Industrial 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 Parks Industrial to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks are -
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. Parks Industrial needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Parks Industrial in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks, Parks Industrial may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Parks Industrial 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 Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks .
Environmental challenges
– Parks Industrial 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. Parks Industrial can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Parks Industrial has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Parks Industrial needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
Increasing wage structure of Parks Industrial
– 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 Parks Industrial.
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
– Parks Industrial 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Parks Industrial can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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 Parks Industrial in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Parks Industrial.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks 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 Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks 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 Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks 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 Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks 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 Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks 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 Parks Industrial needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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