Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player?
Ten years after expanding abroad, Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei faces espionage accusations from the US government, a claim that has shut it out of most of the US market. Now the threat has started to hinder potential deals in Canada, a market it entered only four years ago. This is a market where it has gradually built a market presence with a strategic focus vital to its global research initiatives. Sean Yang, president of Huawei's Canadian operations, must now reaffirm the company's commitment to Canada and regain its customers' trust. This case focuses on the changing competitive landscape in the global and regional environment, and describes the constraints on and advantages of an emerging-markets multinational operating in developed markets. It can also be adopted for teaching external analysis, including PESTEL, five-forces, driving-forces and key success-factor analyses.
Swot Analysis of "Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player?" written by Nikhil Celly, Mary Han, Penny Lau includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Huawei Canada facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets, Globalization, Government, Sales, Technology and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Huawei Canada, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Huawei Canada 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 Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Huawei Canada
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 Huawei Canada
Strengths Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Huawei Canada in Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Huawei Canada 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 Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Huawei Canada 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 Nikhil Celly, Mary Han, Penny Lau 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.
Organizational Resilience of Huawei Canada
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Huawei Canada does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Huawei Canada 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Huawei Canada 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Huawei Canada to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Huawei Canada to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Huawei Canada is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Huawei Canada in the sector have low bargaining power. Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Huawei Canada to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Huawei Canada has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Huawei Canada to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Huawei Canada is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? 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.
Training and development
– Huawei Canada has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? 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.
Weaknesses Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Huawei Canada 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 - Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? 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 Huawei Canada 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? 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 Huawei Canada has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Nikhil Celly, Mary Han, Penny Lau suggests that, Huawei Canada is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Huawei Canada 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? 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 Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Huawei Canada is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Huawei Canada has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player?, in the dynamic environment Huawei Canada has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Huawei Canada has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Huawei Canada, firm in the HBR case study Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Huawei Canada 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? HBR case study mentions - Huawei Canada 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.
Opportunities Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? | 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 Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? are -
Manufacturing automation
– Huawei Canada 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.
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. Huawei Canada can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Huawei Canada can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Huawei Canada to increase its market reach. Huawei Canada 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Huawei Canada in the consumer business. Now Huawei Canada can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Huawei Canada can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Huawei Canada operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Huawei Canada 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Huawei Canada 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Huawei Canada 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Huawei Canada 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Huawei Canada 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 Huawei Canada to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Huawei Canada 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Huawei Canada has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Huawei Canada to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? case study. Huawei Canada can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Huawei Canada 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.
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 Huawei Canada in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Huawei Canada 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 Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? .
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.
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 Huawei Canada.
Regulatory challenges
– Huawei Canada 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Huawei Canada 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player?, Huawei Canada 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Huawei Canada is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Huawei Canada 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Huawei Canada with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Huawei Canada needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Huawei Canada can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? 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 Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? 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 Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? 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 Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? 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 Huawei in Canada: Can It Become a Trusted Player? 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 Huawei Canada needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.