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Joysun at the Crossroads SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Joysun at the Crossroads


Joysun was established as a state-owned enterprise in the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone in China in 1995. Thanks to the effective leadership of its general manager and to the monopolistic nature of the Chinese import and export industry in the mid-1990s, the company had grown rapidly from a shop with five employees in its early days to a major player in the logistics industry by the end of 2012. However, Joysun's journey had been rocky due to the profound and rapid transformation of the Chinese economy over the 17 years of the company's existence. By the end of 2012, the company had several projects underway to consolidate its market position. Nevertheless, the management team felt that it should undertake more initiatives in order to sustain Joysun's leadership over time. More specifically, the general manager wondered whether Joysun should enter the cold chain segment of the logistics industry. Considering the country- and industry-level context, what was the strategic relevance and operational feasibility of Joysun entering this new segment? William Wei is affiliated with Grant MacEwan College

Authors :: William Wei, Ali Taleb, Kaijin Nie

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: , SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Joysun at the Crossroads" written by William Wei, Ali Taleb, Kaijin Nie includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Joysun Joysun's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Joysun at the Crossroads case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Joysun at the Crossroads casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Joysun at the Crossroads


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




Strengths Joysun at the Crossroads | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Joysun Joysun's in Joysun at the Crossroads Harvard Business Review case study are -

Low bargaining power of suppliers

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

Strong track record of project management

– Joysun Joysun's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Analytics focus

– Joysun Joysun's 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 William Wei, Ali Taleb, Kaijin Nie 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

– Joysun Joysun's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Joysun Joysun's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Diverse revenue streams

– Joysun Joysun's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Joysun at the Crossroads 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.

Organizational Resilience of Joysun Joysun's

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

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry

– Joysun at the Crossroads firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Joysun Joysun's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Joysun Joysun's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment

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

Learning organization

- Joysun Joysun's 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 Joysun Joysun's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Joysun at the Crossroads Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Joysun Joysun's 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 Joysun at the Crossroads HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Joysun Joysun's 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.

Superior customer experience

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






Weaknesses Joysun at the Crossroads | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Joysun at the Crossroads are -

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Joysun Joysun's 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 Joysun Joysun's 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.

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 Joysun Joysun's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Joysun at the Crossroads, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Joysun Joysun's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Joysun Joysun's 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 - Joysun at the Crossroads should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Joysun at the Crossroads HBR case study mentions - Joysun Joysun's 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.

Need for greater diversity

– Joysun Joysun's 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Joysun Joysun's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Joysun Joysun's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Joysun Joysun's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Joysun at the Crossroads 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 Joysun Joysun's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Joysun Joysun's 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Joysun at the Crossroads, in the dynamic environment Joysun Joysun's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Joysun Joysun's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Joysun at the Crossroads, is just above the industry average. Joysun Joysun's 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 Joysun at the Crossroads | 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 Joysun at the Crossroads are -

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Joysun Joysun's 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Joysun Joysun's 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Joysun Joysun's can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Joysun Joysun's 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, Joysun Joysun's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Joysun Joysun's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Joysun Joysun's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Manufacturing automation

– Joysun Joysun's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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 Joysun Joysun's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Joysun Joysun's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Joysun at the Crossroads case study. Joysun Joysun's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Loyalty marketing

– Joysun Joysun's 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.

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. Joysun Joysun's 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. Joysun Joysun's 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, Joysun Joysun's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Joysun at the Crossroads 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.

Finding new ways to collaborate

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

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Joysun Joysun's 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 Joysun at the Crossroads External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Joysun at the Crossroads are -

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

Consumer confidence and its impact on Joysun Joysun's 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 Joysun Joysun's.

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 Joysun Joysun's in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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. Joysun Joysun's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Joysun Joysun's is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Joysun Joysun's 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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Joysun Joysun's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Joysun Joysun's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Joysun Joysun's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Joysun Joysun's 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 Joysun at the Crossroads .

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Joysun at the Crossroads, Joysun Joysun's 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 .

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 Joysun Joysun's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Joysun at the Crossroads 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 Joysun at the Crossroads 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 Joysun at the Crossroads 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 Joysun at the Crossroads 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 Joysun at the Crossroads 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 Joysun Joysun's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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