Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity
The senior market associate of Trojan Technologies reflected on the water shortages anticipated in developing countries created by their explosive economic growth. Trojan sold water disinfecting equipment, and the senior market associate's job was to find new areas for growth. China was particularly intriguing because it had as much water as Canada, but 40 times the population, and its economic boom would further stress current water resources. Trojan had set growth hurdles of 30% per year, and it needed new markets to reach that objective. The task in new market development was to determine whether Trojan should enter China and, if so, when, where, and how. The associate knew little of China: how decisions were made for water disinfecting equipment, whether Trojan's patents would be protected, and what level of resources would be required. The vice president of new business development wanted to see recommendations within the month.
Authors :: Pratima Bansal, Paul W. Beamish, Ruihua Jiang
Swot Analysis of "Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity" written by Pratima Bansal, Paul W. Beamish, Ruihua Jiang includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Trojan Water facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Operations management, Strategic planning, Technology and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Trojan Water, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Trojan Water 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Trojan Water
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Trojan Water
Strengths Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Trojan Water in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Trojan Water 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
– Trojan Water 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
– Trojan Water has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity 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.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Trojan Water digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Trojan Water 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Trojan Water is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Trojan Water 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Trojan Water 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 Trojan Water is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Trojan Water has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Trojan Water to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Trojan Water to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Trojan Water to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Trojan Water is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity 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
– Trojan Water 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity 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.
Weaknesses Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Trojan Water 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Trojan Water is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Trojan Water is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Trojan Water needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Trojan Water to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity 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 Trojan Water 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity HBR case study mentions - Trojan Water 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Trojan Water products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Trojan Water needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Trojan Water supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Trojan Water vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Trojan Water 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity, it seems that the employees of Trojan Water 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Pratima Bansal, Paul W. Beamish, Ruihua Jiang suggests that, Trojan Water 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Trojan Water 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 - Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity | 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity are -
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 Trojan Water in the consumer business. Now Trojan Water can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Trojan Water is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Trojan Water 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 Trojan Water to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Trojan Water 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, Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Trojan Water 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Trojan Water to increase its market reach. Trojan Water 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Trojan Water 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Trojan Water can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Trojan Water operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Trojan Water 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Trojan Water to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Trojan Water can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Trojan Water 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.
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 Trojan Water 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.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Trojan Water can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity are -
Increasing wage structure of Trojan Water
– 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 Trojan Water.
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 Trojan Water business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Trojan Water can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Trojan Water needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Trojan Water is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity, Trojan Water may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Trojan Water 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
– Trojan Water 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 Global Business industry regulations.
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 Trojan Water in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Trojan Water 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Trojan Water 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Trojan Water in the Global Business industry. The Global Business 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: The China Opportunity 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 Trojan Water needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.