Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Centron Telecom Internationaling is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Centron Telecom Internationaling
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Centron Telecom Internationaling can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Centron Telecom Internationaling, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Centron Telecom Internationaling can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Centron Telecom Internationaling
2. Improving business portfolio management of Centron Telecom Internationaling
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Hong Kong
4. Making a Communications Equipment sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Centron Telecom Internationaling
Strengths of Centron Telecom Internationaling | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Centron Telecom Internationaling are -
High brand equity
– Centron Telecom Internationaling has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Centron Telecom Internationaling to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Centron Telecom Internationaling has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Communications Equipment industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Centron Telecom Internationaling have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Centron Telecom Internationaling is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Centron Telecom Internationaling emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Communications Equipment
– Centron Telecom Internationaling is one of the leading players in the Communications Equipment industry in Hong Kong. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Communications Equipment industry in Hong Kong but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Centron Telecom Internationaling in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Communications Equipment industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Centron Telecom Internationaling digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
Analytics focus
– Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Communications Equipment industry. The technology infrastructure of Hong Kong is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Strong track record of project management in the Communications Equipment industry
– Centron Telecom Internationaling is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Communications Equipment industry
– Centron Telecom Internationaling has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Centron Telecom Internationaling to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Communications Equipment industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Centron Telecom Internationaling to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Centron Telecom Internationaling is present in almost all the verticals within the Communications Equipment industry. This has provided Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Centron Telecom Internationaling has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Centron Telecom Internationaling staying ahead in the Communications Equipment industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Centron Telecom Internationaling has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Centron Telecom Internationaling has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Innovation driven organization
– Centron Telecom Internationaling is one of the most innovative firm in Communications Equipment sector.
Weaknesses of Centron Telecom Internationaling | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Centron Telecom Internationaling are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
Skills based hiring in Communications Equipment industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Centron Telecom Internationaling has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Communications Equipment industry over the last five years. Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
High dependence on Centron Telecom Internationaling ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Centron Telecom Internationaling still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Communications Equipment industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Centron Telecom Internationaling has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Centron Telecom Internationaling, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Communications Equipment 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.
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 Centron Telecom Internationaling supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Centron Telecom Internationaling is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Centron Telecom Internationaling vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Centron Telecom Internationaling has high operating costs in the Communications Equipment industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Centron Telecom Internationaling lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Centron Telecom Internationaling needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Communications Equipment industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Centron Telecom Internationaling can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Centron Telecom Internationaling is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Centron Telecom Internationaling is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Centron Telecom Internationaling to provide better information regarding Communications Equipment products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Centron Telecom Internationaling has some of the most successful models in the Communications Equipment industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Communications Equipment industry, Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
Centron Telecom Internationaling Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Centron Telecom Internationaling are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Centron Telecom Internationaling is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Centron Telecom Internationaling can utilize new technology in the field of Communications Equipment industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Communications Equipment industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Centron Telecom Internationaling in the Communications Equipment industry. Now Centron Telecom Internationaling can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Centron Telecom Internationaling to increase its market reach. Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
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. Centron Telecom Internationaling can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Communications Equipment industry.
Loyalty marketing
– Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Centron Telecom Internationaling to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Centron Telecom Internationaling can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Centron Telecom Internationaling can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Centron Telecom Internationaling operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Communications Equipment sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Communications Equipment industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Centron Telecom Internationaling 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. Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
Threats Centron Telecom Internationaling External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Centron Telecom Internationaling are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Centron Telecom Internationaling in Communications Equipment industry. The Communications Equipment 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.
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 Centron Telecom Internationaling in the Communications Equipment sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Centron Telecom Internationaling may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communications Equipment sector.
Environmental challenges
– Centron Telecom Internationaling 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. Centron Telecom Internationaling can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communications Equipment industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Communications Equipment industry and other sectors.
Increasing wage structure of Centron Telecom Internationaling
– 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 Centron Telecom Internationaling.
Regulatory challenges
– Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Communications Equipment industry regulations.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Communications Equipment industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Centron Telecom Internationaling can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Centron Telecom Internationaling 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Centron Telecom Internationaling prominent markets.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Centron Telecom Internationaling Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Centron Telecom Internationaling 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 Centron Telecom Internationaling needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.