Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post
Postal services throughout the world are undergoing a process of liberalization and privatization. Competition is getting tougher, as the traditional letter market is shrinking in the wake of a plethora of alternatives. In Hong Kong, the post office became a trading fund in 1995. This allowed for more flexible management of the business as it became self-financing, although it remained a government office. Is the Hong Kong Post better prepared to face the new challenges and opportunities after its transformation into a trading fund or is it better off being a state-run office?
Swot Analysis of "Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post" written by Ka-Fu Wong, Carola Ramon-Berjano includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Postal Post facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economy, Government, International business and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Postal Post, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Postal Post 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 Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Postal Post
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 Postal Post
Strengths Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Postal Post in Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Postal Post to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Postal Post to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Postal Post in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Postal Post is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Postal Post 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 Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Postal Post 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Postal Post in the sector have low bargaining power. Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Postal Post to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Postal Post has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Postal Post 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.
Organizational Resilience of Postal Post
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Postal Post does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Postal Post is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Postal Post 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 Ka-Fu Wong, Carola Ramon-Berjano 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.
Training and development
– Postal Post has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post 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 Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post 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 Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Postal Post is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post HBR case study mentions - Postal Post 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post 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 Postal Post 's lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Postal Post needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Postal Post 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post 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 Postal Post has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post, is just above the industry average. Postal Post 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Postal Post 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Postal Post products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Postal Post needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Postal Post 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.
Opportunities Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post | 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 Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post are -
Manufacturing automation
– Postal Post can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Postal Post has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Postal Post to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post case study. Postal Post can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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 Postal Post 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Postal Post 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 Postal Post to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Postal Post 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Postal Post 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, Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Postal Post can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Postal Post 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Postal Post to increase its market reach. Postal Post 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Postal Post 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 Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Postal Post 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 Postal Post can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Postal Post can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Postal Post operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
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. Postal Post 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. Postal Post 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.
Threats Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post are -
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 Postal Post business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Postal Post 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post, Postal Post 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 .
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.
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 Postal Post.
Increasing wage structure of Postal Post
– 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 Postal Post.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Postal Post 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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Postal Post has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Postal Post needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
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. Postal Post 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Postal Post 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 Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Postal Post with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Postal Post is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post 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 Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post 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 Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post 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 Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post 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 Liberalising the Postal Service in Hong Kong Post 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 Postal Post needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
