Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters
OOCL is one of the world's largest integrated international container transportation, logistics and terminal companies, with a network covering Asia, Europe, North America and Australasia. The company is well respected in the industry with a reputation for providing customer-focused solutions, a quality-through-excellence approach and continual innovation. It has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 1973. In a volatile industry, it has to compete and form alliances. It has a history of investing widely with variable results.
Swot Analysis of "Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters" written by Ali Farhoomand, Tim Summers includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Oocl Container facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Oocl Container, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Oocl Container 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 Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Oocl Container
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Oocl Container
Strengths Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Oocl Container in Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Oocl Container 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 Oocl Container in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Oocl Container is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Oocl Container to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Oocl Container to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Oocl Container
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Oocl Container does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Oocl Container is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Oocl Container is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters 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.
Analytics focus
– Oocl Container 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 Ali Farhoomand, Tim Summers 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.
High brand equity
– Oocl Container has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Oocl Container to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Oocl Container 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.
Training and development
– Oocl Container has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Oocl Container is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Oocl Container 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. Oocl Container 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 Oocl Container 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 - Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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 Oocl Container supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Oocl Container vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Oocl Container 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Oocl Container 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters, it seems that the employees of Oocl Container 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Oocl Container 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 Oocl Container products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Oocl Container needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters 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 Oocl Container 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters 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 Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Oocl Container is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters, is just above the industry average. Oocl Container 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.
Opportunities Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters | 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 Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Oocl Container has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Oocl Container to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters case study. Oocl Container can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Oocl Container 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Oocl Container 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 Oocl Container to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Oocl Container in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Oocl Container 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. Oocl Container 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Oocl Container is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Oocl Container can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Oocl Container can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Oocl Container to increase its market reach. Oocl Container 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Oocl Container can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Oocl Container can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Oocl Container operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Oocl Container 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Oocl Container can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Threats Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Oocl Container 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.
Increasing wage structure of Oocl Container
– 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 Oocl Container.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters, Oocl Container may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Oocl Container 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 Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters .
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 Oocl Container in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Oocl Container 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.
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 Oocl Container.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Oocl Container in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Oocl Container high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Oocl Container 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 Oocl Container is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Oocl Container 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. Oocl Container can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters 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 Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters 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 Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters 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 Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters 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 Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL): Sailing Through Choppy Waters 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 Oocl Container needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.