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China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004


Introduces the reform and development of China's telecommunications industry in the past 10 years, which led to the current situation with six major players in the market. Discusses several factors affecting the development of the industry, such as WTO accession, legal structure, and 3G technology, further demonstrating that the industry is in transition from a planned monopoly to market-driven competition. As the Chinese government is hesitant to give up complete control, it will retain its strong role in the industry for a period of time.

Authors :: Ali Farhoomand, Zhigang Tao, Jiang Ying, Liu Tian Xiang

Topics :: Global Business

Tags :: Globalization, Marketing, Regulation, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004" written by Ali Farhoomand, Zhigang Tao, Jiang Ying, Liu Tian Xiang includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Industry Telecommunications facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Globalization, Marketing, Regulation and Global Business.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Industry Telecommunications, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Industry Telecommunications 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 China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Industry Telecommunications
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 Industry Telecommunications




Strengths China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Industry Telecommunications in China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 Harvard Business Review case study are -

Organizational Resilience of Industry Telecommunications

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Industry Telecommunications does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Industry Telecommunications in the sector have low bargaining power. China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Industry Telecommunications to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Ability to lead change in Global Business field

– Industry Telecommunications 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 Industry Telecommunications in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Industry Telecommunications 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 China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 - 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

- Industry Telecommunications 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 Industry Telecommunications is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Successful track record of launching new products

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

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Industry Telecommunications 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

– Industry Telecommunications is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Industry Telecommunications in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry

– China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Industry Telecommunications to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Industry Telecommunications to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Digital Transformation in Global Business segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Industry Telecommunications digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Industry Telecommunications 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Industry Telecommunications 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 China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.



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Net Promoter Score



Weaknesses China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 are -

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Industry Telecommunications 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 bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ali Farhoomand, Zhigang Tao, Jiang Ying, Liu Tian Xiang suggests that, Industry Telecommunications 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.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 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 Industry Telecommunications 's lucrative customers.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004, is just above the industry average. Industry Telecommunications 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.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Industry Telecommunications 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Industry Telecommunications products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Industry Telecommunications needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 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 Industry Telecommunications has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004, it seems that the employees of Industry Telecommunications 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.

Need for greater diversity

– Industry Telecommunications 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, Industry Telecommunications 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. Industry Telecommunications 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Industry Telecommunications 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 - China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.




Opportunities China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 | 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 China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 are -

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Industry Telecommunications 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Industry Telecommunications can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Industry Telecommunications operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.

Loyalty marketing

– Industry Telecommunications 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Industry Telecommunications 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 China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Industry Telecommunications to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Industry Telecommunications has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Industry Telecommunications to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 case study. Industry Telecommunications can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Industry Telecommunications to increase its market reach. Industry Telecommunications 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Industry Telecommunications 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Industry Telecommunications is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 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 Industry Telecommunications 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Industry Telecommunications can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Industry Telecommunications 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. Industry Telecommunications can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.

Finding new ways to collaborate

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

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Industry Telecommunications 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 Global Business segment.




Threats China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 are -

Increasing wage structure of Industry Telecommunications

– 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 Industry Telecommunications.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Industry Telecommunications 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.

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. Industry Telecommunications can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Industry Telecommunications is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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. Industry Telecommunications needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Environmental challenges

– Industry Telecommunications 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. Industry Telecommunications can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Industry Telecommunications 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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004, Industry Telecommunications 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 .

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Industry Telecommunications 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.

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 Industry Telecommunications.

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 Industry Telecommunications business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Industry Telecommunications 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 China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 .

Regulatory challenges

– Industry Telecommunications 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 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 China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 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 China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 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 China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 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 China's Telecommunications Industry in 2004 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 Industry Telecommunications needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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