China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry (651) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Water Transportation
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry (Hong Kong)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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 China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry
2. Improving business portfolio management of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Water Transportation sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry
Strengths of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry are -
Organizational Resilience of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry has one of the best training and development program in Transportation industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry in the Transportation sector have low bargaining power. China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry is one of the most innovative firm in Water Transportation sector.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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.
Ability to lead change in Water Transportation
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry is one of the leading players in the Water Transportation industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Water Transportation industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry is present in almost all the verticals within the Water Transportation industry. This has provided China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Water Transportation 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.
High brand equity
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Water Transportation industry
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Water Transportation industry. The sustainable margins have also helped China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Water Transportation industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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 China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry are -
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Water Transportation industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry is one of the leading players in the Water Transportation industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Water Transportation industry in last five years.
Employees’ less understanding of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry strategy
– From the outside it seems that the employees of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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 in Water Transportation industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the Water Transportation industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Products dominated business model
– Even though China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry has some of the most successful models in the Water Transportation industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Water Transportation industry, China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry is just above the Water Transportation industry average. It 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Water Transportation industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry has high operating costs in the Water Transportation industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry lucrative customers.
China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry are -
Buying journey improvements
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry can improve the customer journey of consumers in the Water Transportation industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. It 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry to increase its market reach. China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Water Transportation sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Water Transportation industry. This can help China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry to build a more holistic ecosystem for China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry products in the Water Transportation industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry can utilize new technology in the field of Water Transportation industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Water Transportation industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry in the Water Transportation industry. Now China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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 China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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 Water Transportation industry.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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 China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Water Transportation industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Water Transportation industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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. China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Water Transportation industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry is facing in Water Transportation sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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 China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry.
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 China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Water Transportation industry are lowering. It can presents China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Water Transportation sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Water Transportation industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Water Transportation 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Water Transportation sector.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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 Water Transportation industry and other sectors.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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 China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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 China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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 China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry 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 China Ocean Shipbuilding Industry needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.