Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us?
In 2005, three international information technology professionals formed an international joint venture to design and construct information technology systems for shopping centres and office buildings. Despite being relative newcomers to working in the Chinese marketplace, in 2012, the company won a contract for a large job in China. However, when the company's three directors travelled to China to meet with their Chinese business partners, they encountered several unexpected, questionable situations. Their Chinese business partners were not there to meet them; rather, they had travelled to another country. The three directors met instead with representatives from the Chinese government consortium overseeing the construction project, and these officials pressed the three company directors regarding what they had brought for them. Their limited preparation and lack of contingency plans challenged their ability to maintain respect and move forward. How could they recover the situation and still achieve their goals of a signed contract? Stephen Grainger is affiliated with Edith Cowan University.
Swot Analysis of "Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us?" written by Stephen Grainger includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Chinese Travelled facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Negotiations and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese Travelled, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Chinese Travelled 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 Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Chinese Travelled
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Chinese Travelled
Strengths Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Chinese Travelled in Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Chinese Travelled is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Chinese Travelled 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 Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Chinese Travelled digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Chinese Travelled 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Chinese Travelled to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Chinese Travelled to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Chinese Travelled
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Chinese Travelled does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? 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.
Learning organization
- Chinese Travelled 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 Chinese Travelled is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Chinese Travelled 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 Stephen Grainger 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Chinese Travelled 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 Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Chinese Travelled 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Chinese Travelled in the sector have low bargaining power. Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Chinese Travelled to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Chinese Travelled 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 Chinese Travelled in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us?, is just above the industry average. Chinese Travelled 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.
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 Chinese Travelled supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Chinese Travelled vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Chinese Travelled 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Chinese Travelled 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us?, in the dynamic environment Chinese Travelled has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Chinese Travelled has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? 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 Chinese Travelled 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? 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 Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Chinese Travelled is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Chinese Travelled 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? 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 Chinese Travelled has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? HBR case study mentions - Chinese Travelled 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Chinese Travelled 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. Chinese Travelled even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Opportunities Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? | 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 Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Chinese Travelled 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Chinese Travelled can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Chinese Travelled can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Chinese Travelled has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Chinese Travelled to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? case study. Chinese Travelled can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Chinese Travelled 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 Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Chinese Travelled to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Chinese Travelled 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, Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Chinese Travelled can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Chinese Travelled in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Chinese Travelled 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 Chinese Travelled to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Chinese Travelled can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Chinese Travelled operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Chinese Travelled 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.
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 Chinese Travelled 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Chinese Travelled 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.
Threats Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? are -
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 Chinese Travelled in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Chinese Travelled 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. Chinese Travelled can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Chinese Travelled 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Chinese Travelled can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Chinese Travelled 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us?, Chinese Travelled may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Chinese Travelled 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 Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? .
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. Chinese Travelled needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Chinese Travelled with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Chinese Travelled 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.
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.
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 Chinese Travelled business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Chinese Travelled.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? 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 Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? 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 Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? 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 Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? 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 Negotiating with Chinese Business Partners: What Are You Going to Give Us? 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 Chinese Travelled needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
