Yong Tai Pref (YONGq) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources

Introduction to SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Yong Tai Pref (Malaysia)

Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Yong Tai Pref is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Yong Tai Pref

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Yong Tai Pref can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Yong Tai Pref, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Yong Tai Pref 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Yong Tai Pref can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Yong Tai Pref
2. Improving business portfolio management of Yong Tai Pref
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Malaysia
4. Making a Retail (Apparel) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Yong Tai Pref

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Strengths of Yong Tai Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Yong Tai Pref are -

Analytics focus

– Yong Tai Pref 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 Retail (Apparel) industry. The technology infrastructure of Malaysia 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Yong Tai Pref 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Yong Tai Pref is one of the most innovative firm in Retail (Apparel) sector.

Learning organization

- Yong Tai Pref 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 Yong Tai Pref is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Yong Tai Pref emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Yong Tai Pref has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Yong Tai Pref 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.

Ability to lead change in Retail (Apparel)

– Yong Tai Pref is one of the leading players in the Retail (Apparel) industry in Malaysia. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Retail (Apparel) industry in Malaysia but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Yong Tai Pref in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Training and development

– Yong Tai Pref has one of the best training and development program in Services 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Yong Tai Pref has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Retail (Apparel) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Yong Tai Pref have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

High brand equity

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

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Retail (Apparel) industry

– Yong Tai Pref has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Yong Tai Pref to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Retail (Apparel) industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Yong Tai Pref to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Yong Tai Pref has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Yong Tai Pref staying ahead in the Retail (Apparel) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy of Yong Tai Pref comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Retail (Apparel) 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.

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Weaknesses of Yong Tai Pref | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Yong Tai Pref are -

High bargaining power of channel partners in Retail (Apparel) industry

– because of the regulatory requirements in Malaysia, Yong Tai Pref 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 Retail (Apparel) industry.

Need for greater diversity

– Yong Tai Pref 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee of Yong Tai Pref is just above the Retail (Apparel) 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.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Malaysia, Yong Tai Pref needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Employees’ less understanding of Yong Tai Pref strategy

– From the outside it seems that the employees of Yong Tai Pref 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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– From the outside it seems that Yong Tai Pref needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Retail (Apparel) industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Yong Tai Pref can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Yong Tai Pref is planning to shift buying processes online.

High dependence on Yong Tai Pref ‘s star products

– The top 2 products and services of Yong Tai Pref still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Retail (Apparel) industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Yong Tai Pref has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Yong Tai Pref 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative at Yong Tai Pref, in the dynamic environment of Retail (Apparel) industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Yong Tai Pref has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the Retail (Apparel) industry, Yong Tai Pref 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.

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 Yong Tai Pref supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Yong Tai Pref is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Yong Tai Pref vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

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Yong Tai Pref Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The opportunities of Yong Tai Pref are -

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Yong Tai Pref 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Yong Tai Pref 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 Yong Tai Pref 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 Yong Tai Pref to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Yong Tai Pref has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Retail (Apparel) industry. This can help Yong Tai Pref to build a more holistic ecosystem for Yong Tai Pref products in the Retail (Apparel) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– consumer behavior has changed in the Retail (Apparel) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Yong Tai Pref 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. Yong Tai Pref 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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Yong Tai Pref to increase its market reach. Yong Tai Pref will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Yong Tai Pref 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Yong Tai Pref has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Retail (Apparel) sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Yong Tai Pref to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Yong Tai Pref to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Yong Tai Pref in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Retail (Apparel) industry, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Yong Tai Pref 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 Retail (Apparel) industry.

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 Yong Tai Pref 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Yong Tai Pref 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Yong Tai Pref 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 Yong Tai Pref to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

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Threats Yong Tai Pref External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats of Yong Tai Pref are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Yong Tai Pref may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Retail (Apparel) sector.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Retail (Apparel) industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Yong Tai Pref can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Yong Tai Pref 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 Retail (Apparel) industry.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry to Retail (Apparel) industry are lowering. It can presents Yong Tai Pref with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the Retail (Apparel) 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. Yong Tai Pref needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Retail (Apparel) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Yong Tai Pref 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 Yong Tai Pref prominent markets.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Yong Tai Pref has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Retail (Apparel) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Yong Tai Pref needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Retail (Apparel) 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.

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 Yong Tai Pref in the Retail (Apparel) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Yong Tai Pref 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.

Increasing wage structure of Yong Tai Pref

– 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 Yong Tai Pref.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Yong Tai Pref 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 Retail (Apparel) industry and other sectors.

Environmental challenges

– Yong Tai Pref 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. Yong Tai Pref can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Retail (Apparel) industry.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Yong Tai Pref Template, Example

Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Yong Tai Pref 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 Yong Tai Pref 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 Yong Tai Pref 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 Yong Tai Pref 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 Yong Tai Pref needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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